Gov. Hochul pledged at Grand Central Terminal Thursday to work towards driving down crime within the New York Metropolis subway system as her proposed blitz of subway security spending made it via price range negotiations in Albany unscathed.
The funds embody $77 million to maintain up NYPD additional time for in a single day prepare patrols — funding which Hochul mentioned Thursday she would work to replenish past the top of the fiscal yr. The price range additionally consists of $45 million to maintain Nationwide Guard troops deployed to the subway as a part of “Empire Shield,” a 9/11-era counterterror operation the governor has not too long ago employed to discourage extra strange crimes.
“What was the world like before the pandemic, when people were not so anxious about going on the subway?” Hochul mentioned, flanked by Nationwide Guard troops, New York State Troopers and MTA chairman Janno Lieber at Grand Central. “We are now down 16% compared to 2019.”
“We’re 11% lower than last year at this time,” she mentioned.
Hochul’s presser got here as lawmakers in Albany are placing the ending touches on the state price range—which comprises funding for each the MTA’s massive scale capital tasks and its day-to-day working price range.
Gov. Hochul visited Grand Central and the fifth Ave. station on the No. 7 prepare Thursday amid a victory lap for subway security funding. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for New York Each day Information)
Hochul additionally touted final yr’s efforts to put in surveillance cameras aboard each subway prepare, in addition to packages meant to coordinate the state and metropolis’s subway-based psychological well being outreach packages.
Gov. Hochul visited Grand Central and the fifth Ave. station on the No. 7 prepare Thursday amid a victory lap for subway security funding. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for New York Each day Information)
The funding victory-lap comes as subway crime continues to be a flashpoint within the showdown between New York State and a federal authorities that has threatened to cease funding transit tasks over each coverage variations — particularly congestion pricing — and a notion of rising subway crime.
“I more than anyone know there’s still more to do,” Hochul mentioned. “Just last week a man was stabbed to death on the No. 5 train, right in the middle of rush hour — a galling attack that shocked so many riders.”
The state price range additionally consists of full funding to the MTA’s $68 billion five-year capital plan — depending on the MTA discovering a option to save $3 billion over 5 years throughout its capital and working budgets.
That program additionally consists of different expenditures Hochul mentioned would make the subway safer — cash for subway platform limitations and $1.1 billion towards new fare gates at 150 subway stations within the subsequent 5 years.
