>"What we do know is that the MTA is controlled by the NYC construction mafia and is purposefully opaque." No the MTA is controlled by a political mafia in Alb

>"What we do know is that the MTA is controlled by the NYC construction mafia and is purposefully opaque." No the MTA is controlled by a political mafia in Albany - the MTA board appointees are made by the Governor and approved by the legislature.[1] >"The MTA likes to give the appearance of losing lots of money so they can get federal aid." No the MTA does actually lose lots of money though wastefulness, incompetence, corruption and bad decision making. This is distinct from the interference, underfunding and financial machinations of the MTA made by the state. See: https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/mta-overtime-jumped-84-million-in-2015/ https://www.empirecenter.org/publications/mta-overtime-jumpe... https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2015/03/where-the-transit-build-costs-are-unbelievable-000000 https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/201... https://www.wsj.com/articles/mta-blames-uber-for-decline-in-new-york-city-subway-bus-ridership-1532386865 https://www.wsj.com/articles/mta-blames-uber-for-decline-in-... [1] https://www.city-journal.org/html/who-runs-mta-15281.html https://www.city-journal.org/html/who-runs-mta-15281.html