Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced she found $54 million to continue some work on the extension of the Second Avenue subway, which was put on ice after her “indefinite pause” of congestion pricing blew a $15 billion hole in the MTA’s construction budget.
The money allows MTA contractors to continue to relocate utilities along a stretch of East Harlem where the extended line will be built. But it still represents less than 1% of the project’s estimated $7.7 billion price tag. The move is Hochul’s latest attempt to scrounge for funds under the state’s couch cushions to help pay for transit upgrades left unfunded due to her congestion pricing pause.
Hochul told reporters in Albany on Tuesday that the money will come from “unallocated capital funding” set aside for infrastructure projects in the state’s budget. According to the governor’s budget division, the money is pulled from an $85 million fund former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers created back in 2016, when the state was in the midst of the $4 billion Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project.
That fund came with few strings attached — so long as the money was spent on costs “associated with economic development or infrastructure projects,” according to state budget documents. But neither Cuomo nor Hochul had ever tapped into it before Hochul earmarked $54 million for the subway expansion on Tuesday.
Hochul said the money will ensure there are “no delays” with the early work on the Second Avenue project, which has been planned for decades and aims to extend the Q line from 96th Street to 125th Street and Lexington Avenue.
“This is something that I determined — in order to keep this moving without delay, because we don’t want the cost of contracts to go up – that now is the time to release that because we had a situation that came to my attention that just needed to be taken care of now as opposed to later,” the governor said.
The work that can move ahead is part of a $182 million contract authorized last year.
The MTA has yet to issue a much larger contract to physically dig out the tunnels for the new line — which officials previously said relies on the funding from congestion pricing. A $3.4 billion grant approved by the Federal Transit Administration for the subway extension last year also hinges on the MTA finding the money to cover the rest of the project’s cost.
“If there’s any other reasons why there are delays, we will work through them,” Hochul said.
The governor also emphasized she intends for the congestion pricing pause to be temporary.
“For those who did not believe me when I announced that from here in June, they’re starting to realize – and the MTA now knows and everybody knows I am committed to funding these critical capital projects.”
On Monday, MTA officials said they’d move forward with drafting their next five-year construction plan with the assumption that all of the necessary funding would be filled to existing projects, including the Second Avenue subway, that were pegged to congestion pricing.