New York, NY – $3.5 Million MTA Spending Spree Same Time as Fare Hike

New York, NY – The MTA burned through $3.5 million in the past year to increase staffing and hand out raises in its headquarters at the same time it cried poverty and begged for a $2.3 billion state bailout.

Between March 2008 and March 2009, 140 directors, managers and other employees who work in the MTA’s main Madison Avenue offices received raises. Of these bump-ups, 79 came without title changes.

In the same period, the Midtown HQ’s headcount surged by 43 staffers to 695, records show.

The new hires included a $75,000-a-year photographer, a $117,000-per-year director of police support and a $134,204-a-year director of workforce development. Also, for $172,000 a year, it brought on a “chief diversity officer” who is supposed to help give contracts to minority-owned businesses. All were newly created positions.

Overall, payroll at headquarters rose 6.7 percent to $55.5 million.

The raises ranged from $1,000 to nearly $40,000 and were doled out to secretaries, project managers, auditors and an in-house counsel. The fattest went to Vinay Dayal, whose income soared a staggering $39,606 to $140,000.
Dayal was promoted from deputy director of finance to director of treasury, taking over for John Murphy, who was making $167,577. But the MTA didn’t save much, if anything, on the post — it kept Murphy on as a part-timer at $85.70 per hour to help with the transition.

The next highest raise went to the deputy director of media relations, Jeremy Soffin, who received a hefty $14,850 hike without a change in title. The mouthpiece now makes $123,000 annually.

Part-time photographer Patrick Cashin must have flashed a smile when the debt-riddled transit agency made him a full-time employee, giving him $75,000 a year rather than his hourly rate of $43.71.

The hiring spree saw 96 employees added, with only 53 workers leaving.
The MTA gave 79 employees 3 percent cost-of-living raises, and 55 workers received bump-ups for promotions, according to agency spokesman Ernest Tollerson.

Six others received raises larger than 3 percent that weren’t based on promotions. But three of those, including Soffin, had their salaries “reassessed” on the advice of an outside consultant, Tollerson said.

As for the new hires, Tollerson said many were tied to future cost-cutting and consolidation programs that will eventually save the agency $40 million a year.

But the $3.5 million payroll increase didn’t sit well with MTA watchdogs, who said agency brass shouldn’t be handing out money when they’re calling for major cuts.
“I’m surprised. I would have thought they would have been leading by example,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. “It’s time for everybody to tighten their belts.”

For the past year, the MTA warned of yawning budget gaps and threatened severe service cuts and a 23 percent fare hike.

This month, Albany averted the doomsday scenario with a $2.3 billion bailout from a payroll tax and other cash-generating initiatives.
A week later, the MTA board approved a 10 percent across-the-board fare hike to begin next month, which ups a single ride on the subway by a quarter to $2.25 and a monthly MetroCard pass by $8 to $89.

The MTA also said it plans to phase out 600 station agents over the next seven years through attrition.