Dear State Senate: Pass An MTA Bailout Plan. NOW!
I’ll keep this brief, Senators, because there’s not any more time to waste. I must say, even by Albany’s standards, the futzing around over an MTA bailout has reached a new low. For weeks, the Senate leadership has dithered over something that will have an immediate impact on the wallets of more than 2-million transit users. 2-Million! That’s more people than most states’ entire populations. How many other top priorities do you have preventing you from pulling this together?
I hope you’ve heard by now that without a plan, the MTA doomsday budget kicks in… only now it’s being called Doomsday-Squared. The MTA’s deficit is now projected to be around $600-million more by next year, and they’re talking about eliminating or cutting way back on late night and overnight subway service. If that happens, it won’t be just an inconvenience for the many thousands of people who ride those trains—it’ll mean they can’t get to their jobs. What do you have to say to those people?
Every proposal that’s been floated—payroll taxes, tolls on East River and Harlem River bridges, a taxi tax of $1 per ride—have gone exactly nowhere in the Senate. Here’s the latest proposal described in Newsday. It all seems to come down to the same old battles between upstate and the city, and the suburbs and the city. But, Senators, IT’S ALL NEW YORK! You have a responsibility to your constituents, certainly, but also to the state as a whole, to reach compromises that are in the general interest of all New Yorkers. That includes the millions of moderate and low income folks who ride subways and buses.
Get something together next week, and pass it. You’re like children, each protecting his little piece of turf at the exclusion of all else. Grow up, find a compromise, soften the blow of the rate hikes and service cuts, and get to work on overall reform of that corner of urban Hell known as the MTA. This is real now. Stop playing games.
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Comments: 6
Let's put all the upstate and downstate politicians on a bus and/or train to nowhere until they make a decision that benefits all New Yorkers - no matter the region.
Our state government is a joke. Time and time again they show a complete disregard for the people they supposedly represent. It starts with Tort Silver and continues throughout the entire legistlature and senate.
And, our governor? The irony of his vision problems is just amazing.
Hi Jim,
I watch your news cast every evening and don't say much but between the MTA and yourself I don't know who I have to blast first. You obviously don't understand what is going on here. Of course you are one of the city folks who thinks the rest of New York State should feel sorry for you because the MTA is in trouble. Dale Hemmerdinger, the MTA's chairman, criticized lawmakers for not having a sense of urgency. I think he has the situation backwards. He runs the agency and he wasn't smart enough to have the sense of urgency to prevent this shortfall. I haven't heard about any cutbacks with this agency. All I hear is its in Albany's court now. How many people here in Orange County make the kind of money this agency pays their employees? Not many but we are being asked to pay more for our auto registration and then to top it off they are asking our employers to pay a payroll tax. In the private sector that will probably mean some layoffs and in the public sector your school districts and local governments will have to also pay this payroll tax. By now you may have guessed it our property taxes will have to go up in order to pay for this. I hope Albany has the guts to say no to this stupid plan and in the same breath fire Dale Hemmerdinger and the rest of the agency and get this agency back on track without the already overtaxed property owners paying for it.
You say that Albany is futzing around well maybe for good reason. Maybe for once they realize that this agency is in big trouble and the rest of New York State doesn't want to have anything to do with this problem. Maybe you should get both sides of the story (Upstate and the City)before you post your blog. Send one of your news crews up here and interview some of the people here and get their views on this. I feel sorry about the huge increases the ridership will have to bear to go to work but did anybody care last year when I had to pay those $4.25 per gallon gas prices for me to go to work? There isn't much public transportation up here except for our own private cars and I didn't have much of a bale out from Albany to pay my expenses.
to James Capicotto... James, that was just a superb comment. Your points are well made from start to finish. I totally hear you. yes, I do write from the vantage point of a city (now near-city dweller), but since that's my perspective... well, that's my perspective. I agree with you on almost every point, especially the need to once and for all begin with hard core reform of every aspect of the MTA.. it's governance, chain of command, etc.
But I just don't want to see so many people hurt by trying to force this right now. The economy is terrible, it might be better early next year. So let's punt ONE more time, to help many New Yorkers deal with the hard times... then raise some hell.
Sometime or other this state has got to pull its rural and urban culures together. So difficult.
I think any bailout plan should happen like some of the Federal ones. With the firing of the head of the MTA and most of the board members. They are obviously incompetent and year after year we hear about problems with the MTA (though the worst is now).
MTA may need a bailout for a moment, but did anyone find something funny?
If the city and/or state gov bailout the MTA, then MTA would have the money to operate, for a while. but where is this money eventually from? Taxpayers.
In another word, we are going to bailout MTA out whether we like it or not. It is either by fare hikes or higher tax(es) later on, either way comes from your pocket, there is no escape (there are naive people think that money can just come from the thin air).
Not to mention now the city is poor, so it would come up ways to grab money from people in the city, whether it is tax hikes, or parking tickets (even unlawful ones, which are tons of them, the city gets millions of dollars from parking tickets, it is where the real cash is from, and the city knows most people won't bother to fight it).
What a pathetic scene. The big corps made a HUGE mess, the gov bail them out (and wasted the money), but it is the taxpayers who pay the bill. No one sees there is something serious wrong here???