MTA's finances have stunk for a very long time and fingers can be pointed in many directions.
Huge issue with MTA is debt; it has tons of it: starting from 1980's when state allowed the agency to issue tons of bonds to finance capital improvements and other bits, which continues still today.
Problem with debt is it has to be serviced, those costs are eating at MTA why high credit card bills do same for households.
One large issue of course is workforce for MTA's various agencies. Nothing much will change unless or until work rules and other savings are found in that area; good luck with that.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/17/n...oney-woes.html
https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2022/01/...llion-dollars/
https://cbcny.org/advocacy/how-fix-m...budget-deficit