MTA critic and City Councilman John Liu, who chairs the council transportation committee, has again been accusing the MTA of keeping a slush fund -- unused money for the now abandoned $645 million LaGuardia Access project to bring the R train to the airport.
“The MTA is still holding on to their remaining $204 million slush fund like there's no tomorrow,” he said. “What about the twelve subway station renovations across the City scrapped by the MTA just last year for lack of funding while they kept this slush fund hidden and untouched? Keeping $204 million hidden under the mattress indefinitely is another clear example of the lack of accountability and transparency at this behemoth authority." 
The old LaGuardia money has been used for new buses and depot upgrades in Queens (more than $100 million), a new Yankee stadium Metro-North station ($40 million), and perhaps another $40 million for the new Mets stadium.
Last June, Michelle Goldstein, Director of Government Affairs for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, denied it was a slush fund at one of Liu’s hearings.
“All I can say is that it was absolutely not hidden,” she said during the sometime tense hearing.
But, Goldstein won’t be in Liu’s hot seat anymore. Today Mayor Bloomberg announced she’ll once again work for City Hall -- this time as director of the Office of State Legislative Affairs aka the mayor’s lobbyist.
So, with Goldstein out. Who’s the next MTA person with the responsibilty of denying the existence of a “slush fund?”
Newsday photo, Liu is center
-- Chuck Bennett
