Gary Dellaverson, chief financial officer of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, retired last week after 19 years at the agency.
Dellaverson, 55, became the authority’s CFO in February 2007, just as a flush economy was turning sour and the MTA began wrestling with large deficits.
He had planned to retire in the fall but was convinced to stay on to the end of the year by MTA chairman and chief executive officer Jay Walder, who was appointed to the post in September, said spokesman Kevin Ortiz.
Last month the MTA passed an $11.98 billion “doomsday” budget that slashes services to deal with budget gaps caused by shortfalls in revenue, cuts by lawmakers to close the state’s budget gap, and additional labor costs following an unfavorable labor-arbitration settlement.
David Moretti, executive vice president of the MTA’s bridge and tunnel agency, will serve as interim CFO, according to Ortiz. Walder has vowed to restructure the cash-strapped authority to find savings.
Dellaverson joined the MTA as director of labor relations in 1990 and served as its chief labor negotiator during a transit workers strike in 2005.
The authority began 2010 without a five-year capital program. Last week, Gov. David Paterson’s representative on a state board that must approve the agency’s plan voted against a $28.08 billion program, which had a nearly $10 billion funding gap.
Last year the Legislature adopted a bailout package to fund the first two years of the MTA’s capital program. The package is primarily funded through a payroll tax on employers in the 12 counties served by the system.
Those taxes have yielded less revenue than anticipated and a new revenue source for the remaining three years of the capital program has not been identified.
State lawmakers rejected proposals that would have charged tolls on certain city bridges or imposed fees on vehicles traveling through much of Manhattan.
The authority, which has approximately $29 billion of debt outstanding, plans to enter the market tomorrow with $350 million of taxable Build America Bonds on its transportation revenue credit.
Dellaverson had previously worked in New York City government as a deputy commissioner for the city’s Fire Department and in the mayor’s office of labor relations. He had also worked as a private attorney.
