Orange County wants out of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Lawmakers this month introduced legislation that would withdraw the county from a service they argue residents are paying too much for with little to show for it.

“This is a last resort,” said state Sen. James Skoufis who carries the bill in the Senate. “The situation has at best not gotten better, if not deteriorated.”

It comes as Skoufis and others say the MTA has failed to provide improvements for Orange County riders. He pointed out that the only service to New York City requires a changeover in New Jersey, and wait times make even that service less than useful. 

“You can’t have two-way travel simultaneously, and there’s actually one period each and every day in the middle of the day where you can go six hours between trains,” he said.

He laments that this is all while Orange County residents are paying what he estimates to be approximately $50 million per year into a system through taxes, fees that he insists is not benefitting them.

“Pound for pound, it’s a lot of money for a county of 400,000 people, very few of which actually take the service,” he said.

Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for the Riders Alliance, told Spectrum News 1 that pulling out of the MTA is not the answer. 

“Clearly this is a cry for help, but now is the time to do better,” he said.

He argued that local leaders haven’t put enough pressure on the MTA to respond to a population boom in recent decades.

“Transit hasn’t kept up and leaders haven’t kept up, and there hasn’t been that organizing base demanding that investment in transit that there has been, for example, in New York City,” he said.

Skoufis said don’t count him as someone who hasn’t tried. 

“Service, taxes and pricing are items that I have been working on for over a decade, bringing better service to Orange County,” he said.

Making things more complicated, he stressed that the state’s now-contested congestion pricing plan is unfair to Orange County residents who are left with little choice but to drive.

“We represent communities that should have been engaged and accommodated with a more nuanced plan,” he said of earlier indications that the plan would include exemptions or tax credits for county residents.

That said, you might think he was pleased that President Donald Trump stepped in this week to halt the plan, tweeting that “Manhattan and all of New York is saved,” but Skoufis was clear that he doesn’t buy that the president, who is at odds with plenty of New York’s leaders, is truly concerned about the financial impact of the plan on his constituents. 

“This has nothing to do with protecting working people, it has nothing to do with protecting individuals in Orange County’s case from an unfair and unjust toll. This has everything to do with, from his perspective, going after a perceived enemy,” he said.

The MTA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As for a replacement service, Skoufis says there is no concrete plan, but options include a direct contract with New Jersey Transit, establish a county-operated transportation authority or initiate a “dramatically” improved bus service.