Joseph J. Lhota (/ˈloʊtə/; born October 7, 1954) is an American public servant and a former politician who served as the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and was also a former deputy mayor of New York City.

[8] Following Harvard, Lhota returned to New York City and began a fourteen-year career as an investment banker at First Boston and Paine Webber.

In 2010, he joined The Madison Square Garden Company as executive vice president as a member of the senior management team and chief administrative officer.

[12][13] In 2014, Lhota became a board member of Cablevision Systems Corporation and was chairman of its audit committee until the company was sold in June 2016 to Altice USA.

Additionally, he was responsible for oversight of the city's relationships with the public employee unions and development of collective bargaining agreement strategies.

[25] Lhota was responsible for New York City Transit’s Fastrack program, which saw more than $16 million in productivity gains in 2012, by concentrating and targeting subway station maintenance efforts.

[27] Lhota also directed the MTA to provide regular details and updates to the public on the recovery efforts via social media and local news channels.

[41] Lhota also proposed a tax incentive program to allow private sector developers to build mixed-use housing to incorporate affordable units.

[42] He planned to improve education in New York City by doubling the number of public charter schools, particularly in low-income neighborhoods.

[citation needed] Lhota lost the general election to de Blasio,[44] garnering 249,121 votes, or 24.3% of the voter turnout.

[45] In January 2017, Governor Cuomo appointed Lhota to the committee charged with conducting a nationwide search for a new chair and chief executive officer of the MTA.

In summer 2017, the subway system was officially put in a state of emergency after a series of derailments,[49][50] track fires,[51][52] and overcrowding incidents.

[55][56] The MTA had been criticized for implementing relatively cosmetic improvements, rather than performing needed repairs and upgrades to signals, power, tracks, station accessibility, and infrastructure.

[61] In July 2019, it was revealed that Lhota did resign in a letter to Cuomo due to a state ethics committee decision that he had too strong a potential conflict of interest.

[68] He endorsed Kathryn Garcia for first preference in the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, with Eric Adams and Andrew Yang as his second and third picks, respectively.