At an Albany press conference today, the State Senate Democrats released a stopgap MTA funding plan that would not address the agency’s long-term capital needs and may not even fill the agency’s operating gap. The plan includes a 0.25% payroll tax in the MTA region and a 4% fare increase. (According to the MTA, the Senate’s math is wrong and a 17% fare hike would actually be required.) Reflecting the influence of anti-toll senators, the Senate’s plan does not include tolls on the East and Harlem River Bridges. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith promised to address the MTA’s capital program later in the year.
Later in the day, Gov. Paterson held a press event where he reaffirmed his support for the Ravitch plan and warned that waiting to address the capital program was an approach that had “gotten Albany in trouble time and time again.” Standing with him was a broad coalition of transportation, business, labor, and environmental groups including TSTC. In a statement, Tri-State said that although the Senate’s plan would temporarily avert service cuts and fare hikes, it was ultimately “a failure of leadership and courage.”
It’s instructive to remember two recent times when civic opinion was so concentrated behind transportation issues. In 2000, business, civic, and transportation groups (including TSTC) warned state leaders that their plan to fund the MTA’s 2000-04 capital program with fare-backed bonds was irresponsible and would result in ballooning debt and multiple fare hikes (see MTR # 265 and a contemporary New York Times report). But with Gov. George Pataki’s blessing, the MTA went ahead with the plan. The result: three fare increases between 2000 and today, plus the fare hike scheduled to take effect this summer (see MTR # 561).
Last year, an even larger coalition of business, labor, environmental, equity, and transportation groups stood behind New York City’s congestion pricing plan, which would have cut traffic and stabilized the MTA’s long-term capital program. State elected officials rejected the plan and set the stage for the current transit crisis.
With the MTA on the brink, state elected officials again have a choice. They can side with a handful of state senators who want to protect drivers and punt on the hard decisions. Or, they can side with the business, labor, environmental, civic, and transportation advocacy communities — and with the millions of transit riders who deserve a functional and affordable system.
It’s come to our attention that New York City is again trying to level tolls on all entrances in and out of Manhattan which effectively forces people who live in Manhattan or on Long Island to pay tolls to access the mainland of the United States.
In the past, Interpage staff and their families who have worked in New York have been adamantly opposed to what is effectively double taxation. We have put up a few links on our LobbyByFax system to facilitate a constituent response to put pressure on legislators in Albany as well as the New York City Council to express disdain for these proposals.
Anyone who is reading this who feels similarly are encouraged to use this service. It is completely free and we do not use, solicit or in any way do anything with any names or addresses. LobbyByFax will never e-mail you. Your information will be purged after your fax has been sent out.
Should you wish to participate, please select the state of New York from the dropdown menu list of the alert page on LobbyByFax and then select the representatives you wish to communicate with.
Direct link to LobbyByFax alert:
http://www.lobbybyfax.com/lobby/selectstate.asp?alertid=43
Main page of the LobbyByFax service:
http://www.lobbybyfax.com
Main page of Interpage:
http://www.interpage.net
List of LobbyByFax alerts and their descriptions:
http://www.interpage.net/sub-lbf-alerts.html
Thanks!
Trent
http://www.interpage.net
I thought the NY legistalure couldn’t get worse. I thought a Democratic majority would be better for mass transit.
I was wrong.
The legislature is even more of an embarrassment than the previous. The fact that the obstreperous members are from Queens and Brooklyn only adds to the insult.
NY City people, and now politicians, lose all touch with any area outside of the city. Their extreme city-centricism is hurting suburban areas and WILL hurt the city economy (albeit delayed a bit).
[…] However, there’s a real danger that the Legislature will pass a short-term fix, like the State Senate majority’s plan, that restores service cuts but doesn’t fund the MTA’s long-term capital […]
[…] MTR has recapped before, that crisis had its roots in a series of disastrous decisions by New York State and the MTA […]