MTA Bailout By Senate Democrats
Senate Democrats offered their own plan today to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, calling for lower fare increases and no new bridge tolls in New York City.
Some Senate Democrats had opposed a proposed $5 toll on the East River and Harlem River bridges, or a $2 toll sought by Assembly Democrats, as a way to help the MTA close its $1.2 billion deficit.
As a compromise, Senate Democrats proposed dealing just with the MTA’s operating deficit and not its five-year capital plan, which senators said relieves the immediate need for massive fare increases or new bridge tolls.
Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said any capital plan for the MTA must be coupled with aid for upstate roads and bridges. Republicans had knocked Smith for not tying aid to the MTA with aid to upstate.
The Senate plan calls for a payroll tax of 25 cents for every $100 that is levied on employers in the MTA region, instead of 33 cents recommended by a state panel headed by Richard Ravitch last year.
The Senate proposal would also reduce fare increases from 8 percent to 4 percent.
“These are working families that need some relief,” Smith said.
The Senate plan is at odds with the proposal by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, who wants to put a $2 toll on the bridges.
Gov. David Paterson, meanwhile, has backed the Ravitch Commission plan, which has the 33 cent payroll tax, an 8 percent toll increase and $5 tolls on the now free bridges.
So the sides appear far apart in reaching an agreement by the MTA’s deadline of March 25 to have a plan in place. Without an agreement, the MTA is threatening a fare increase of 23 percent and massive service cutsand layoffs.
The state Senate launched a Web site that explains its proposal to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and allows the public to comment on the plan.
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Tolls on bridges that don’t have them already? Besides the fact that I think it’s already outrageous to pay the $$ that we already pay to get into Manhattan and out to LI, how are they planning to collect these tolls? Gonna put an honor box at the entrance ramps? I don’t think so. Building tollbooths where they don’t already have them will probably eat up whatever revenue the MTA is hoping to take in, and will take longer than this projected fiscal period to put into place. Either they’re just putting THAT out there as a bargaining chip they’re more than willing to give up, or it’s a sneaky way to give Bloomberg his rejected fee for entering Midtown.
Or both.