Underfunded by State
Bills Aiding MTA Could Avert Hike

By ARI PAUL

Two bills introduced in the State Assembly would provide the Metropolitan Transportation Authority with $703 million in additional budgetary aid starting next April.

JIM BRENNAN: State not paying fair share.

While the bills are not expected to be voted on this fall, supporters believe they might strengthen opposition to the MTA's desire for fare hikes.

'Hike Not Only Option'

"It's to bring this subject up into the public domain to make people aware that there are other options besides raising the fare," said Lorrie Smith, a spokeswoman for Brooklyn Assembly Member Jim Brennan, who introduced the bills.

The first bill would increase MTA spending in general. The Assembly Member claimed that the authority's funding has declined in recent years. The second bill would appropriate $38.6 million to subsidize reduced fares for schoolchildren.

"The City of New York relies upon the [New York City] Transit Authority to provide safe, efficient, and cost-efficient transport for all public school children in return for state reimbursement of these fares," Assembly Member Brennan said in the latter bill's support statement. "Over the past ten years, the state has failed to reimburse the actual cost of these fares to the MTA, causing shortfalls for the MTA. The MTA has absorbed these shortfalls."

Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan is expected to introduce similar bills in the State Senate.

Assembly Member Brennan also wrote to MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot G. Sander Oct. 15, asking him to postpone imposing a fare hike until after the budget is passed next year.

TWU Silent

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, who has publicly opposed plans to raise the fare, did not respond to requests for comment.

Aspects of the bill are based on a report city Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. issued Aug. 7 suggesting funding avenues that would avoid a fare hike. 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.

"I am hopeful that this legislation could help to remedy the imbalanced funding system that has traditionally shortchanged New York City's riders," Mr. Thompson said in an e-mail. "The state must provide additional funding to New York City Transit that it is rightly owed."