Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi is trying to balance the county’s budget on the backs of Long Island bus riders. His proposed 2010 budget, released this morning, slashes the County’s contribution to Long Island Bus by over 25%, from $10.5 million to $7.7 million. Given that County Executive Suozzi’s “New Suburbia” proposal depends on a robust transit network, this is a surprising action.
For a perpetually strapped agency, this action could result in drastic service cuts for Long Island bus riders, a group that has repeatedly been singled out by decision makers for drastic fare hikes and service cuts even in the best of economic times.
The move furthers the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s long-held belief that Nassau County and the MTA need to reach an agreement to establish a regional bus system that enables Long Island Bus to have a stable source of funding and plan for increases in ridership. Long Island Bus ridership reached an all time high of 33.1 million in 2008, but county funding has not kept pace.
It’s worth noting that while the County is cutting its contribution to Long Island Bus, it is also initiating a study for a new transit service to the Nassau Hub area. That study is worthwhile, but pursuing it while slashing funding for the County’s existing transit system does not make any sense. If the County cannot support the transit system it has, and cannot reach an agreement with the MTA that puts Long Island Bus on stable financial footing, it should not be pursuing new transit projects.
In a statement, the Campaign said that it “will fight County Executive Suozzi’s proposal and stand up for the needs of Long Island Bus riders.” Hearings on the county budget have not been announced yet but are typically scheduled for October.
[…] Nassau Exec Proposes Slashing LI Bus Budget By 25 Percent (MTR) […]
It is rather evident where promoting density development to justify transportation funding has gotten the metro area over the last 5 years. Basically no where, except producing very expensive so called studies with flawed traffic studies.
The problem with the HUB proposal is that it Developer Driven,mall shopping , new sports arena, and unneeded Condo’s and hotel space. This is quite moronic when just down the road is an established area, with in place infrastructure , housing, rail & bus stations that if rehabilitated in fact rejuvenated would meet all the goals proposed by the HUB .In fact hempstead has a long standing bus terminal that is under utilized. Question is why build another.
One can only channel Einstein, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
With that there really should be no surprise here, County Executive Tom Suozzi is promoting a federally funded taxpayer supported “iconic Ferry Terminal” san’s Ferry operator, out of his home town Glen Cove, where not only an abandoned ferry terminal exists but all attempts at “ferry” service have failed.
With such high mindedness and wasteful expenditure of taxpayers money does anyone really believe that the CE & the Nassau County Planning Commission even comprehend the varied need’s of county residents and multi-model options.
New Suburbia? How about rebuilding, refurbishing and rejuvenating what already is in place. and then lets go from there!
[…] challenging county legislators and County Executive Thomas Suozzi to ride the bus and learn what a $2.8 million cut to LI Bus would mean for everyday riders. The cut, which represents over 25% of the […]