MTA Tightens Belt By Delays in Hiring And Reductions in Car Use
By ARI PAUL

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has issued new proposals for agency Presidents to save money, including ordering executives to add 60 days of lead time before taking on new hires and decreasing non-revenue vehicle use.

ELLIOT SANDER: Cutting back on the extras.

In a memo July 8, MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot Sander ordered the changes as a part of the authority's July Plan, saying that they would aid in addressing budget shortfalls.

"The severe drop in proceeds from our real estate taxes coupled with dramatic increases in fuel prices are creating great stress on our operating budget," he said.

In terms of new hires, Mr. Sander said that agencies can be exempted from the delays if they can show that a lag would compromise public safety. He outlined how agencies would have to prove that they were trimming their budgets.

"Agencies are to demonstrate to the [Chief Operating Officer] quarterly, beginning September 30, 2008, that the use of non-revenue vehicles has been reduced by 15 percent," Mr. Sander said. "This target can be met by less usage of the current fleet in order to reduce maintenance, fuel and scheduled replacement purchases which are generally geared to age or mileage, or a reduction in the number of vehicles comprising the non-revenue fleet commensurate with anticipated savings from the 15 percent mileage reduction."

Mr. Sander also instituted a freeze on out-of-town travel unless trips were necessary for procurement, and ordered agencies to reduce their telecommunications costs by 10 percent.

During the last round of budget hearings at the City Council, the MTA made clear that it will ask for "modest" givebacks from unions when their contracts come up for negotiation, saying that health and welfare costs accounted for 10 percent of the authority's budget. While Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint - whose contract expires in six months - did not comment on Mr. Sander's memo, he said last August in response to a possible fare increase that the MTA suffered from a "bloated management bureaucracy."