MTA boss Janno Lieber slammed over mismanagement as NYC congestion toll takes effect — as he dismisses ‘grievance politics’

MTA boss Janno Lieber brushed off concerns Tuesday that the agency is mismanaging its massive $20 billion budget — dismissing scrutiny of congestion pricing from state lawmakers as “grievance politics.”

During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman and CEO responded to comments New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler made dubbing the agency the “worst run authority in America” and calling for Lieber’s ouster.

“This is grievance politics, not substance politics,” Lieber responded. “I would say 80% of Lawler’s constituents actually ride mass transit, 1% of his constituents actually commute to the central business district and pay the toll.”

Host Willie Geist reiterated Lawler’s point, noting that with a $20 billion budget, the MTA “already should have been able to take care of the subways” without adding on the extra $9 fee for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street.

“They shouldn’t look the way they look, most of these subway stations, shouldn’t operate the way they operate most of these trains. You shouldn’t have to then slap a $9 tax on a commuter to pour more money into a system that doesn’t appear to be working for New Yorkers,” Geist said.

Lieber defended the MTA, noting they have made “enormous strides” in terms of reliability, grown ridership and expanded with construction on the Second Avenue subway line.

“Yeah, we have a long way to go, and it needs to feel safer,” Lieber said — noting that while New Yorkers currently feel a lack of public safety, it is “not fair” to say the subways have not improved.

Earlier this week Lieber brushed off other concerns of crime in New York City subways as being “in people’s heads,” while discussing congestion pricing — which has forced more New Yorkers into the plagued public transit system.

Lieber, during a Monday morning interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance,” argued, similarly to Mayor Eric Adams, that a rash of recent horrifying attacks are distracting from the city’s successes in making the subways safer.

“Some of these high-profile incidents, you know, terrible attacks have gotten in people’s heads and made the whole system feel unsafe,” he said. “The overall stats are positive.”

His comments come after the shocking attack on 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, who was torched to death on a Brooklyn F train in plain view of horrified commuters.

There were at least five attacks in the days after Kawam’s death, including the Jan. 2 stabbing of an MTA staffer heading to work in The Bronx in the Pelham Parkway station and the shoving of music programmer Joseph Lynskey, 45, who miraculously survived after being pushed at random in front of a 1 train in Manhattan.

Lieber, on Tuesday, also said on “Morning Joe” that he’d gone to Lawler to ask him to get the MTA more money from Congress but he did nothing.

“New York gets 45% of the mass transit riders in the United States, we get 17% of federal money. I said, ‘Congressman, you’re in the majority. Can you help us?’ Never heard from him again,” Lieber said.

Lieber lamented Lawler for “selling an outdated cartoon,” telling hosts, “I wish we had the old New York GOP that went to Washington and worked for New Yorkers who they actually represent.”

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli expressed similar bewilderment as Lawler Tuesday over the MTA’s wild spending habits, noting on NY1 that while congestion pricing will bring in a lot of money, it won’t settle the agency’s new capital plan, which has a funding gap of $33 billion.

“This discussion of the MTA and how we fund it is not going to be off the table just with congestion pricing,” DiNapoli said.

“The MTA needs to be much more efficient and much more cost conscious, no question about it…But I think the other piece is that people need to see results,” DiNapoli said. “They need to see that the system will be maintained. Well, there will be rolling stock, new trains, you know, new equipment. They need to not only be paying this extra toll, they want to see the results.”