New York, New York – In March 2016, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which operates the New York City Subway, transferred $4.9 million directly to the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) which operates three New York ski resorts: Whiteface, Gore, and Belleayre.
Yeah. That MTA. Those ski resorts.
Wait… did the MTA actually “bail out” ski areas?
Here’s where it gets very New York. The explanation wasn’t that the subway system suddenly decided to become a ski area sponsor. The MTA owed money to New York State under a cost-recovery arrangement. Instead of sending that payment into the state’s general fund and having it moved around later, state officials directed the payment straight to ORDA. Albany described it as an accounting maneuver—basically a way to move money within the same fiscal year.
On paper, it’s bureaucratic. In real life, it landed like: “My train can’t move, but the ski resorts are getting millions?”
Why ORDA needed the money
ORDA wasn’t exactly swimming in cash at the time. The 2015–16 winter had been rough. Warm temperatures hammered snowfall, skier visits dropped, and ORDA was staring at a revenue shortfall. The transfer helped stabilize things for the state-run mountains—again, not tiny mom-and-pop hills, but major resorts that matter to their regions.
Why people freaked out anyway
Because the MTA in 2016 was already dealing with a long list of very public problems: service delays, aging infrastructure, maintenance backlogs, budget pressure, and a steady stream of rider complaints. So even if $4.9 million isn’t huge in a multi-billion-dollar world, the symbolism was brutal.
Critics hammered it as misplaced priorities. Transit advocates called it a “budget gimmick.” And the optics were so bad it almost didn’t matter what the accounting explanation was—because the headline basically wrote itself: subway money → ski resorts.
The most New York part of all
This whole episode became a perfect snapshot of how public authority money can slosh around between agencies until it looks completely ridiculous from the outside. Technically, the MTA was paying a bill it already owed. Practically, a bunch of New Yorkers stuck in delays got to read about $4.9 million going to Whiteface, Gore, and Belleayre in the same era the MTA couldn’t reliably get them to work on time.
And honestly? Only in New York do you get to wonder if every “due to signal problems” delay is secretly powering a snow guns upstate.