It’s the Family Feud, government edition.
The MTA and the city are at cross-tracks over more than $1 million worth of billboards, with each side claiming it has the power to tell the other what to do.
The Buildings Department started the feud in March when it ordered the state transportation agency to remove 19 advertising signs on its properties along major highways in Queens.
Billboards put up after 1979 near arterial roadways and parks are generally illegal.
A crackdown over the past couple of years has forced private companies to yank dozens of similar signs, especially along the LIE and BQE.
It just so happens that most of the 19 MTA signs are situated along those same two thoroughfares.
But the MTA says it has special status as a state agency, and is challenging the Buildings Department’s authority.
“Because we are a state authority, we are not subject to the municipal regulations that might apply to a private entity,” said MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg.
He said the cash-strapped agency pulls in $1.1 million a year from those signs.
“The revenues they bring in is $1.1 million we don’t have to generate through fares or through cutting services,” Lisberg said.
The MTA has significant financial problems. So officials there are going to fight for every extra dollar.
The Buildings Department acted after The Post reported that a federal judge in 2009 appeared to give it jurisdiction over about 75 advertising signs on properties owned not only by the MTA but also by the Port Authority and Amtrak.
Stay tuned for the Family Feud, Parts II and III.