Bonding is MTA goal

BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

Dear Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum: Can you spare $250 million? Love, the MTA.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked State Supreme Court Justice Herman Cahn to order Gotbaum - and everyone else who filed a lawsuit trying to stop the agency from awarding its West Side railyards to the Jets - to fork over a $250 million bond.

The MTA argues that substantial delays will cost the agency money - even as Jets officials acknowledged yesterday that another month or so of delays still won't affect their plans to build the stadium for the 2009 season.

Gotbaum described the MTA's request for a $250 million bond as a "cheap shot."

"It shows that the MTA is ducking the main issue identified in the court petition: that it can and should get much more than the $250 million offered by the Jets," she said.

MTA spokesman Tom Kelly called the request customary.

Meanwhile, Cahn postponed a hearing that had been scheduled for today on the slew of lawsuits protesting the MTA's decision to award the railyards to the Jets. Cahn hoped to reschedule for later in the week.