It's hard enough trying to make your way across a crowded subway platform on a hot summer day.

But subway commuters have another issue to navigate, too: the political wrangling between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over just who is responsible for running the MTA — and solving its problems. 

It's not an easy question to answer: The MTA is an independent agency with six board members nominated by the governor, four nominated by the mayor, and the others by the executives of seven suburban counties. 

"The short story is, the MTA is controlled by the MTA, " Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute explained. "Both the state and city have a role here, but the governor has a much bigger role in that he names the chairperson, and he names more board members than anybody else.

Part of the battle is over money, but Gelinas said the MTA has more than enough — $32.5 billion over five years.

"Their real problem is that they can't spend this money fast enough or well enough," she said. "Even if you walked over there today with an extra $2 billion, they can't go out and shut a subway line down and start the re-signaling process. They haven't figured out how to do this without undue disruption to people."

In this interview, WNYC's Jami Floyd talks with Gelinas about the inner workings of the MTA. 

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