Update 4/28: The Senate plan was voted out of the Transportation Committee yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile, the MTA’s budget projections have officially worsened.
The New York State Senate’s latest plan, announced earlier this week, has now arrived in bill form, though it has not been introduced yet. Here are the draft bill text and the draft sponsors’ memo.
The plan includes a graduated payroll tax ($0.34 per $100 in the 12-county MTA region except in Orange, Putnam, and Dutchess Counties, where the tax would be $0.25 per $100). Instead of the $2 bridge tolls envisioned in the State Assembly’s MTA rescue plan, the Senate plan would increase driver’s license and learner’s permit fees, raise vehicle registration fees, add a $1 surcharge to taxi trips, and add a 5% tax to car rentals.
The bill would also add two Legislature-appointed members to the MTA board, consolidate the board chair and CEO positions (as proposed in the Ravitch plan), and give the State Legislature “line-item veto” powers to strike projects from proposed MTA capital programs as well as the ability to commission an audit of the MTA.
According to the Daily Politics, the bill will probably be introduced this week, making a vote possible by next week. But it does not appear that the bill actually has the votes to pass the Senate. More importantly, it is not clear that the plan raises enough money to fill the MTA’s budget gap and meet the agency’s long-term needs.
In a statement, the Empire State Transportation Alliance, a coalition of which TSTC is a member, said that “It is critical that the final plan address the MTA’s long-term capital needs … Tough choices have to be made and ESTA strongly maintains support for a plan that shares the burden amongst drivers, businesses and transit riders as the most equitable option.”
Compounding the bad news is an MTA memo, reported on today, which suggests that the agency’s budget gap has increased by hundreds of millions of dollars as the plummeting economy eats away at the agency’s fare revenue and the dedicated taxes that support much of its operations. The April 27 meeting of the MTA Board’s Finance Committee should make it clear just how bad the agency’s situation is.
