I was stunned to read on this website that millions of dollars was diverted from the MTA 15 years ago to bail out Nassau County, which is now being forced by a court decision to pay money back. Every party to that deal, everyone involved with it, did something very, very wrong. It is outrageous — an hidden debt from the point of view of Nassau County residents, a theft of funds from the point of view of the MTA. This should be investigated. How many other off the books debts like this are they? And if this is the common practice, should we be surprised that the state legislature and Comptroller are borrowing money from the pension funds?
Of course the state itself has raided so-callled “dedicated taxes” from the MTA after the city and state shorted it on other obligations for years, and the MTA has plenty of problems of its own. But it might have been better served in the long run if the court had ruled that since this was a deal in the dark, today’s taxpayers are not responsible for it. Given the small share of state debts that actually passed by the required referendum, that could save a lot of money.