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New York - MTA Approves Doomsday Budget |
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News Source: NBC New York
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MTANew York - The MTA Board has voted unanimously to pass a doomsday budget plan—laced with massive service cuts and phasing out of student MetroCards—and send it to public hearings
Several members made statements expressing concerns over the controversial budget, including one who said “it stinks.” But the Board is required by law to send a balanced budget into the new year.
New MTA Chief Executive Jay Walder said “this is the beginning of the process, not the end.”
Governor Paterson could work with lawmakers in Albany to restore State funding cut in recent weeks. If accomplished before service changes now scheduled for next summer, millions of riders could be spared much of the pain.
Phasing out of free student transportation wouldn’t be implemented until September, leaving extra months to reverse that plan.
The powerful Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told NBCnewyork.com Tuesday night that the student MetroCard cut will not be allowed to take effect.
Walder also today conceded that the public’s money is being wasted on inefficient operations, bloated management and old technology.
“We need to take the place apart,” said Walder, making the strongest comments in years by an MTA chairman about financial problems that have led the transit organization to the brink of massive service cuts.
Walder said the 5000-strong administrative staff is too large, and, continuing a battle fought by his predecessors, he also took aim at “unacceptably generous” wage hikes awarded to transit union workers. An arbitrator gave them an 11.5% hike over three years. But that contrasts with an immediate 10% reduction in salaries for the MTA’s non-union employees.
“Labor has to work with us to solve this imbalance,” said Walder.
“We must accept there will be layoffs,” the transit CEO added. “We can’t pay for work that is no longer necessary. Private business does not operate this way.”
Before the board voted, a long line of public speakers voiced their opinion on the proposed cuts.
Among them was and angry Brooklyn councilman Charles Barron who said, “You respond slower to the people’s needs than the C train and G train on the weekends.”
Many spectators in the overflow crowd held up signs that read “YOU ARE SO SCREWED,” apparently referring to what the budget plan will do to riders.
Meanwhile a coalition of Brooklyn community groups has announced a “day of outrage” March for Monday, December 21st, starting at 3:00pm at MTA HQ on Madison Avenue and 44th Street.
The agency is facing a $383 million budget shortfall, but the policy of free or discounted student rides has been in place since 1948. Ending it could cost half a million students nearly $1,000 per year in transportation fees.
That could have a big impact. Eighty percent of the city’s public school students have family incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
Public Advocate-elect Bill de Blasio released a statement on the vote saying: “The MTA’s vote today could very well result in students missing school because their families can’t afford the extra cost of a metro card. We cannot place such an unfair burden on low income students and their families in the middle of a recession. The decision to approve this doomsday budget was made without considering credible alternatives or giving New Yorkers a say in the process.”
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Read Comments (11) — Post Yours »
1
Dec 16, 2009 at 12:08 PM Anonymous Says:
Hopefully, they will eliminate subsidies for all these special groups (students, elderly, disabled, city employees, Vishnitz chasedeim, etc). I think that 10 percent of the riders pay the regular fare and the other 90 percent get a discount. Everyone should pay the same fare since it costs the same to carry a person on a bus or the subway
2
Dec 16, 2009 at 12:13 PM yosse nathan Says:
what ever happened to all the money that they get from the tbta to subsidize the mta.
3
Dec 16, 2009 at 12:17 PM Stop the insanity! Says:
Privatize the MTA NOW!
4
Dec 16, 2009 at 12:31 PM Anonymous Says:
Most of these fancy executives who voted FOR this doomsday budget do NOT ride the subway. Their children go to school by car or limo (excuse me). They will not suffer what every single New Yorker will suffer!! The trains are packed NOW!! What will they be in a month or two?? How do they expect children, no matter what religion, race, or creed, to go to school or yeshiva??? How are parents supposed to cough up an extra $1,000.00 per child in order to get them to school?? In large families, the money, just is not there!! In small families, it is not there either!!! In these economic times, where do they think the money is supposed to come from. Are children supposed to walk to school?? They are going to find kids skipping school, or loitering on the streets!!Whose fault will it be!! Which set of MTA books should be audited?? Which set is kosher??? I hope VIN posts this.
5
Dec 16, 2009 at 01:04 PM Anonymous Says:
This agency continues to amaze me at how ineffective and inefficient they are.
The MTA should be disbanded and a new agency that performs the same function, but with 1/3rd the employees and minimal waste, should be formed to replace it.
Where is $5 EACH way on the Triboro bridge, and no car pool discount available, going to? There should be either no toll or a very minimal one, at most, like in other places throughout the country.
Once the waste and fraud is eliminated from the MTA or its successor, then come up with a number of how much a subway ride costs, and charge that, whether it's $1 or $4. Keep the socialist free student and reduced elderly passes and put that into the above calculation.
Once that's done, see what fee really should be charged, if anything, for the tolls on the MTA crossings. Why should it cost $10 round-trip just to cross the bridges/tunnels into Manhattan on a Sunday night?
This $200 Million surplus then one month later $2,000,000 deficit indicates that someone is doing well here, and that someone is not the consumer.
6
Dec 16, 2009 at 02:17 PM gregaaron Says:
“ This agency continues to amaze me at how ineffective and inefficient they are.
The MTA should be disbanded and a new agency that performs the same function, but with 1/3rd the employees and minimal waste, should be formed to replace it.
Where is $5 EACH way on the Triboro bridge, and no car pool discount available, going to? There should be either no toll or a very minimal one, at most, like in other places throughout the country.
Once the waste and fraud is eliminated from the MTA or its successor, then come up with a number of how much a subway ride costs, and charge that, whether it's $1 or $4. Keep the socialist free student and reduced elderly passes and put that into the above calculation.
Once that's done, see what fee really should be charged, if anything, for the tolls on the MTA crossings. Why should it cost $10 round-trip just to cross the bridges/tunnels into Manhattan on a Sunday night?
This $200 Million surplus then one month later $2,000,000 deficit indicates that someone is doing well here, and that someone is not the consumer. ”
Actually, the Triboro (and Whitestone, and Throgs Neck, and Midtown Tunnel) are all up to $5.50 now. I would also love to know where all that money goes to (maybe towards replacing signs that their contracters knock down, or repairing a bridge that their people accidently set on fire). Other cities don't have these outrageous tolls - for example, the bridges going into Philadelphia are $3, I believe. One way only. Anyone care to explain?
7
Dec 16, 2009 at 02:43 PM Aryeh Says:
The MTA needs to be replaced by a private company. Competition, even in infrastructure has only reaped benefits. Phone company, ESCO, airlines, television...
8
Dec 16, 2009 at 03:12 PM Trust me Says:
“ This agency continues to amaze me at how ineffective and inefficient they are.
The MTA should be disbanded and a new agency that performs the same function, but with 1/3rd the employees and minimal waste, should be formed to replace it.
Where is $5 EACH way on the Triboro bridge, and no car pool discount available, going to? There should be either no toll or a very minimal one, at most, like in other places throughout the country.
Once the waste and fraud is eliminated from the MTA or its successor, then come up with a number of how much a subway ride costs, and charge that, whether it's $1 or $4. Keep the socialist free student and reduced elderly passes and put that into the above calculation.
Once that's done, see what fee really should be charged, if anything, for the tolls on the MTA crossings. Why should it cost $10 round-trip just to cross the bridges/tunnels into Manhattan on a Sunday night?
This $200 Million surplus then one month later $2,000,000 deficit indicates that someone is doing well here, and that someone is not the consumer. ”
The Triboro Bridge Authority is the ONLY transportation affiliated agency(out of 17) that actually MAKES money, and does not need the State budget to determine is spending. It also gives money to other departments.
The MTA has suffered from decades of undermaintainance that the system is falling apart & needs huge input of funding to fix it. Take for example the Q & B lines, where they are repairing/replacing most of the stations in Flatbush. If you want the subway riders to pay for it - it would probably cost $10 a ride, per person. One day there is a $200M surplus, the next day they award the contract to fix one part of the system and boom - $2M deficit.
It is a totally inefficient agency, but hopefully, with the new MTA Chief Executive Walder, he will rescue this department and improve it for everyone in the long run.
9
Dec 16, 2009 at 03:26 PM Dave Says:
First, privatizing the line will not result in competition, because there is only one set of subway tunnels, and the privatized company will own them.
Second, privatizing the line is unlikely to repay the taxpayer for the expenses already paid in creating the infrastructure.
Third, the lines themselves are agressively subsidized by the taxpayer. If the riders actually had to pay the complete costs (as they would in a privatized system, that would not have access to the taxpayar subsidies), the costs would be significantly higher.
10
Dec 16, 2009 at 04:22 PM Z. N. Mishegoss Says:
“ Actually, the Triboro (and Whitestone, and Throgs Neck, and Midtown Tunnel) are all up to $5.50 now. I would also love to know where all that money goes to (maybe towards replacing signs that their contracters knock down, or repairing a bridge that their people accidently set on fire). Other cities don't have these outrageous tolls - for example, the bridges going into Philadelphia are $3, I believe. One way only. Anyone care to explain? ”
The $3 toll in one direction only is about right for the operational cost of a large suspension bridge, along with the (un)necessary bureaucracy - the Philadelphia bridges and the Delaware Memorial Bridge are the same (different agencies run them). Caltrans is charging $6 in one direction only on the Golden Gate Bridge, which is just a few feet shorter than the Verrazano Bridge. There are some rail subsidies going on in Philly and San Francisco (for PATCO and BART trains) but nowhere near the degree they are doing in NY.
I recall there was something in the enabling legislation back in 1968 when they combined the TBTA, NYCTA and other agencies that let them use the better rated bonds of the TBTA to handle the debts of the rail systems and that because one can't interfere with bond covenants unless it's against public policy they were given a blank check to do whatever they wanted with tolls. Nelson Rockefeller and Robert Moses were a real pair of wise guys (in both senses of the term!). The best explanation is in Robert Caro's book "The Power Broker" - fascinating read.
11
Dec 16, 2009 at 09:53 PM Anonymous Says:
A few weeks ago I saw about 20 mta workers sitting around doing noting for about 4-5 hrs. Nite after nite after nite.