NEW YORK - City workers are reportedly on track to have their tardiest year ever.
A report by the Independent Budget Office says the subways have caused municipal employees to miss more than 17,000 hours of work this year.
That's a nearly 30 percent increase from this time last year.
The IBO says the worst instance came in January, when water got onto the tracks at the West 4th Street Station in Greenwich Village.
That led to a massive ripple effect across the entire system, and made city workers miss nearly 1,100 hours of work.
The report does not take into account workers from the city's Education Department, the Housing Authority, or the Health and Hospitals Corporation.
A spokesman for the mayor told the newspaper the lost hours show the state must back City Hall's plan to fix the subway, including the so-called millionaires' tax on wealthy New Yorkers.
In response, the MTA added, "Any increase in delays experienced on the subway show the critical need to support and fund the MTA's Subway Action Plan and why City Hall and Mayor de Blasio should step up and fund their half of the plan."