There's more to the story of 900 people on some contract to the MTA, and only 700 people actually being hired, that would be fraud and should be prosecuted, som

There's more to the story of 900 people on some contract to the MTA, and only 700 people actually being hired, that would be fraud and should be prosecuted, someone should go to jail for it. That's theft. It's way different than overbilling where you hire 700, but either overpay them by 28%, or even overcharge the MTA by 28% while pocketing the profit. Charging money for something that did not in fact happen is fraud, it's a crime. But yes the first statement is overwhelmingly true, the MTA has lost the ability to build cost-effectively. More to the point, they've lost the ability to write coherent contracts, hire competent contractors to fulfill those contracts, and then hold all parties accountable. Their ducks are not in any sense in a row.