Comptroller: Can Avert Fare Hike;

Calls for City, State Help
Comptroller: Can Avert Fare Hike


City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. released a report Aug. 7 offering financial recommendations for city and state assistance that would delay or eliminate the need for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed transit fare increase.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'THE DOLLARS ARE THERE': City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. unveiled a report Aug. 7 outlining suggestions he said would add enough city and state funding to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to avoid or delay a transit fare hike. The report has been sent to lawmakers as well as the MTA.

Would Produce $728M

Among his six proposals were to reinstate city funding for the Staten Island Rapid Transit system, restore full state funding of the 18-b operating assistance program for New York City Transit, and eliminate the practice of allocating downstate transit tax income for transit projects upstate. The report claimed that if all six recommendations were adopted, the $728 million it would generate would cover New York City Transit and the MTA's projected deficits in 2009 and 2010.

"Several of our recommendations would provide funds to New York City Transit (NYCT), rather than to the MTA as a whole," the report stated. "This approach is appropriate because NYCT accounts for 62.5 percent of the MTA's operating costs excluding any debt service allocation, and about 74 percent of total operating deficits before subsidies in 2008."

With the cost of living rising, Mr. Thompson argued that a 6.5-percent transit fare increase, as the MTA has contemplated, would adversely affect working New Yorkers.

"This isn't asking for something New York City Transit isn't entitled to," Mr. Thompson told reporters. "We haven't invented new revenue streams. The dollars are there."

The report also said that commuter railroads would benefit from increases in NYC Transit funding.

"The commuter railroads net out with slightly more revenue, at least $20 million more, from our proposals," the report said.

No Need for Givebacks

Mr. Thompson vowed that the MTA could increase revenue to delay or eliminate the need for a fare hike without seeking union givebacks.

"I don't think that's on the table," he said.

The MTA issued a written statement in response: "We appreciate the Comptroller's work on this matter and his report's acknowledgement of the vital infrastructure funding needs and $6 billion in deficits we face over the next four years. We have proposed a preliminary plan to close these gaps and address the longer-term funding needs. Based on his findings, we hope the Comptroller will partner with us in advocating for the appropriation of this critical funding in Albany and at City Hall."

MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot G. Sander's proposition last month that an increase in transit fares was necessary to alleviate budget woes incited criticism from various sectors of the transportation community.

John Liu, Chairman of the City Council's Transportation Committee, believed that a fare hike in the next few years would be ill-timed.

"We're on the cusp of sending a very strong message to New Yorkers that mass transit is the way to go," he said in a statement. "A fare hike at this point would contradict this message, undermining the goal of reducing congestion - and further contribute to an unfair burden on working families."

TWU's Solutions

Transport Workers Union Local 100 called for cutbacks in management staffing and for the city and state to adjust contributions to the MTA to current rates of inflation as ways to avoid a fare increase.

"Before they pass the buck onto straphangers, the city and the state need to step up and pay their fair share of the cost," Local 100 President Roger Toussaint said in a statement last month. "Instead, both have cut their contributions and hurt the system. More than that, though, the MTA needs to give specifics about cutting back their bloated management bureaucracy."

The other recommendations were improving the school fare subsidy and adjusting the "MTA Bridges and Tunnels surplus distribution formula to reflect 39 years of inflation ... [and] the formula to reflect the distribution of users of the toll facilities."

Many of the Comptroller's recommendations require action by the City Council or State Legislature. The report has been sent to lawmakers as well as the MTA. And while, as one reporter noted, the MTA is not asking for more funding from the city and state, Mr. Thompson said that his recommendations were inspired by former budget plans.

"It's not that difficult to go back to the way things were done in the past," he said.