Behind the banner of the Empire State Transportation Alliance, a diverse group of New York State legislators, businesses, labor unions, environmentalists and transportation advocates gathered in Albany this week to urge Governor Cuomo to build consensus on new funding sources for New York’s statewide transit capital needs.
The MTA’s capital plan expired in December of 2014, and according to contractors, no new contracts are being let until the next capital plan is approved by the legislature. Advocates found out during lobby visits this past Tuesday that a $600 million contract for East Side Access needs to be signed by September, but without an approved and funded capital plan, work will stop.
Unfortunately, a simultaneous impromptu press conference by the Senate’s new leader, Senator John Flanagan, drew the cameras away from some choice moments for transit. ESTA’s press conference included an impassioned speech by Senate Finance Committee Chair John DeFrancisco about the importance of transit funding to Syracuse, which has been hit by shortfalls this year. Capital New York reporter Jimmy Vielkind asked a key question: why is it is the governor’s responsibility to lead? Assemblyman Jim Brennan responded:
The governor is the leader of the state of New York. Every past governor, when the MTA faced a funding crisis—Governor Carey, Governor Cuomo, even Governor Pataki and Governor Paterson, in his time. Every governor has stepped up and dealt with the situation.
The group’s press release stated: “Budget season is over in New York State, but the MTA still has a $14 billion shortfall in its proposed $32 billion 2015-2019 capital plan, and suburban and upstate transit systems still have a $500+ million gap in their proposed 5-year capital plan. Viable funding options exist—user fees, toll reform, sales and income taxes, increased state and local support—but the state needs to act now in order to avoid returning to the dilapidated transit systems we experienced in the 1970s and ‘80s.”
[…] Bi-Partisan State Coalition Urges Cuomo to Lead on Transit Funding (MTR) […]
Raise the tax on gasoline. Can’t think of doing that? Even though gas prices fell from $4 to $2 per gallon in some places (the Gulf Coast). You claim to be “fee market” people, who believe among other things that raising prices reduces demand, and everyone knows that gasoline usage needs to go down, at least little by little, so we can figure out better ways to get around, or at least stop low density population expansion, which raises infrastructure coasts to “everyone” – ie not to those who drive into the suburbs.
Raise the tax on gasoline. Idiots.