Faced with a nearly unprecedented deficit over the past year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is poised to raise its base subway fare and implement what MTA officials themselves termed “doomsday” service cuts.
However, hopes were raised cautiously for the first time in months on May 5, when Gov. David Paterson, CC ’77, announced a state-funded rescue package that would reduce the $2.50 base fare and extensive service reductions scheduled to be implemented on May 31. The state legislature approved the plan on May 6, but Elliot Sander, MTA chief executive officer, resigned the next day in a pair of events that turned the city’s public transportation system on its head.
Though only the MTA can set new transit fares, the state money is expected to alleviate the need for the previously planned measures, under which pay-per-ride and unlimited MetroCard prices would have increased by between 20 and 30 percent, and nighttime subway and bus service would have been drastically reduced. This relief will come through a new payroll tax—34 cents for every $100 in wages—and a 50-cent surcharge on taxi rides in the city.
Most other city agencies will sustain $1 billion in funding cuts if the New York City Council approves Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed budget. But while last week’s state bailout brought the MTA above water, no other municipal entity has faced financial woes on the level of the MTA’s.
Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign—a riders’ advocacy group—outlined a bleak future for the MTA in April.
“The solution is challenging, but the problem is crystal clear,” Russianoff said at the time. “We are looking at higher fares, service cuts, and no money for future upgrades. But we shouldn’t just be looking at money for the agency. We need new checks and balances to make sure this never happens again.”
The national economic crisis and the failure of state politicians until very recently to come to a workable compromise have exacerbated the MTA’s problems, which began even before the state fell into a multi-billion dollar budget deficit last September. In June 2008, realizing a crisis was imminent, Gov. Paterson commissioned Richard Ravitch, CC ’55 and a former MTA chairman, to lead an investigation into how to keep the agency running.
In December, Ravitch and his 13-member committee released a 19-page report advising the state to levy higher taxes and collect tolls on East River bridges. These measures, Ravitch maintained, would allow the MTA to reduce or even eliminate the worst of the proposed fare hikes and service cuts. Most politicians, including Paterson and Bloomberg, quickly warmed to the plan. However, political opposition from both parties in the state Senate prevented the plan from being adopted, as Democrats opposed bridge tolls and Republicans vetoed tax hikes.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s, CC ’83, federal stimulus package provided the city and state with billions of dollars for public projects, but the MTA did not receive enough money to fully compensate for its $1.2 billion deficit. With no other recourse, the MTA announced over the summer that public transportation fares would increase by at least 23 percent, and warned of cuts in subway and bus service, particularly at night. The idea of eliminating nighttime service altogether was even briefly floated.
“We support the Ravitch plan as a way to divide revenue,” MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said earlier in the spring. But without state assistance, “we have no choice but to balance the budget the only way we can, with service cuts and fare increases.”
Locally, most concerns centered around the implications of the proposed cuts.
“We won’t mind a small fare increase, but please don’t cut service,” said city council member Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side. “We need buses and subways. We don’t have anything else. There are few cars around here. The seniors are desperate for buses.”
State assembly member Daniel O’Donnell, who represents Morningside Heights, echoed Brewer’s concerns. “The people I represent depend on public transportation,” he said in January. “If New York wants to remain a world capital, public transportation needs to continue to function. New York is a 24-hour city, and we need a 24-hour public transportation system.”
And while a resolution may now be on the horizon, students already feeling pinched by the recession are bracing for even more difficult times ahead.
“It’s definitely going to hit me,” Andres Bermudez, a student at the Columbia Journalism School, said. “My budget is really tight as it is. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”