ALBANY — New York’s public authorities — including the MTA — are nearing the $250 billion mark in debt.
The staggering benchmark is the result of years of “back-door borrowing” by the quasi-independent authorities, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli revealed yesterday in a report.
Authority debt jumped 13.5 percent in the past two years, from $214.6 billion in 2009-10 to $243.7 billion last fiscal year — while spending by public authorities ballooned by 27 percent, from $44 billion to $56 billion during the period, according to the comptroller.
“More needs to be done to curb the state’s overreliance on public authorities issuing debt without voter approval,” DiNapoli said.
What’s more, the Cuomo administration used more than half a billion dollars in authority money to pay ongoing bills last year, DiNapoli pointed out.
The biggest 2011-12 “sweep” involved using $165 million from the MTA’s Metropolitan Mass Transportation Operating Assistance Fund to pay interest on state borrowing.
DiNapoli has also criticized Cuomo’s 2013-14 budget proposal for urging a new bond financing program backed by sales-tax revenues and expanding the sale of bonds backed with personal income-tax collections. Cuomo’s office declined to comment.