Abolish the MTA To Stop Transit Bleeding

The Ravitch Commission has spoken. The fare raise will be mitigated. The sky will not fall until the next time. But the Ravitch solution promises a raise in the fare every other year. This solution does not control or reduce transit cost. This can be done. I therefore propose a better way.

This better way will reduce the Metropolitan Transportation Authority budget, control costs and by dedicated funding end the yearly doomsday talk of fare raises. The better way will in fact put money into the passengers' pockets.

MTA: Going Away

Step 1 of the Better Way would be to eliminate the MTA and sell off its extraneous real-estate holdings. The MTA is like a middleman: someone who just sits there and takes money. The MTA produces nothing. The guestimated savings would be upwards of $150 million per year.

Step 2 would be to close down the MTA Capital Construction Agency. Its only function is to give away bloated engineering and construction contracts. The engineering could be done in-house for much less. This reduced engineering cost would also lead to a reduction in construction costs, as engineering and construction costs are tied in. So cut one and you cut the other. The elimination of this agency (and the MTA) would also reduce capital construction costs by eliminating revenue losing projects (such as the 2nd Ave. Subway, the East Side Connection and the Taj Mahal at Fulton Street) and replacing them with lesscostly needed projects (i.e. platform extensions for the entire Lexington Ave. Line). This reduction in capital spending would result in less interest on bonds and reduced budget requirements.

Step 3 would be the imposition of Zero Fare for the transit systems. This would save the cost of collecting the fare (approximately 5 percent of the operating budget.

Step 4 would be the provision of dedicated funding for the transit systems. This would be done through a payroll tax on all employees in the serviced counties.

Twelve billion dollars would be raised (enough for the Operating and Capital yearly requirements). The payroll tax would be written off the indiviuals' Federal taxes (resulting in an overall savings for the ridership [about $100 per year for subway users to $1,000 per year for Railroad Users]) bringing in about $3 billion to the area.

There would be ancillary benefits of less traffic, less air pollution, lower car insurance rates and more use of urban shopping and cultural facilities etc.).

Mr. Levy, a retired veteran of 35 years in the transit system who monitored the structural integrity of the subway system's below-river tunnels, is the former chairman of the Civil Service Technical Guild's New York City Transit chapter.