By Philip Newman
Kalikow said the time he spends trying to get the highest price possible for the valuable MTA-owned West Side rail yards could better be spent on the agency's capital program.By that, he meant getting more money than Gov. George Pataki has proposed for New York City's cash-strapped mass transit system. The MTA operates the subways, buses, Long Island Rail Road, Metro North, bridges and tunnels.”If 5 percent of the energy that we've spent on the stadium in the last month had been directed toward the capital program, which is much more critical to our operation, we would have that program today,” Kalikow said after the MTA's monthly board meeting last Thursday.Kalikow said the MTA had hired the Newmark & Co. Real Estate Inc. as a co-nsultant to advise on selling the yards to the highest bidder. The New York Jets first offered $100 million for the yards to build a stadium, but Madison Square Garden of-fered $600 million and Kalikow then opened bidding. The bids are due by March 31.Supporters of New York City's attempt to get the 2012 Olympics, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have said New York City would lose the games without the stadium. Pataki has proposed providing the MTA with $14.7 billion for the capital plan rather than the $17 billion Kalikow said it required for the agency's expansion projects. Katherine Lapp, MTA executive director, said that unless the agency gets more money, it might mean not only no new projects but cuts in subway station renovations and the cancellation of orders for new subway cars and commuter rail coaches. Lapp said New Yorkers who live outside the city also have a stake in whether more money is forthcoming from Albany. She said the jobs of thousands of workers in car manufacturing plants upstate would depend on whether the MTA is able to buy the new cars. She said jobs within parts of the MTA might also be lost.New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi criticized Pataki's proposed budget, saying it would force the MTA into such a pattern of borrowing as to result in 23 cents of each dollar the MTA collected going to debt service.Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by email at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 136.
