BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

As seen in today's New York Times;

So Soon? Fares and Tolls Rise in M.T.A. Plan

By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Published: July 22, 2008

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will propose a substantial increase in transit fares and bridge and tunnel tolls next year to help close a widening budget gap of nearly $900 million, according to an official at the authority.

Though the precise amount of the fare and toll increase has yet to be determined, the authority will seek to increase the revenue it gets from those sources by 8 percent. If approved by the authority’s board, the increase would take effect next July and would follow a toll and fare increase in March of this year.

In the more than 100-year history of the subway, the fare has gone up in consecutive years only once before, in 1980 and 1981.

On Wednesday, the authority will unveil a preliminary budget plan for 2009 that calls for the fare and toll increases and outlines other measures to balance its budget, including more than $300 million in additional financing that the authority hopes to get from the city and state.

Coming at a time when the state and city budgets face extreme financial pressure as well, those requests are likely to be resisted by elected officials.

The authority faces steadily rising costs, particularly for fuel, as well as sharply declining tax revenues due to a slowdown in the real estate market. Just six months ago, the authority predicted that its shortfall for 2009 would be slightly more than $200 million, less than a quarter of its latest projection.

The budget plan, which the authority is required to produce in July, puts new focus on a state commission created by Gov. David A. Paterson to recommend long-term solutions for the authority’s chronic financial difficulties. The panel, which is headed by Richard Ravitch, a former authority chairman, is to make a report by November. The authority must pass a new budget for next year in December.

Even traditional opponents of fare increases said they thought higher fares were inevitable because the authority’s financial problems are so deep, but they said riders should not have to bear the cost alone.

“We’re not fans of fare hikes,” said Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, a rider advocacy group, “but my view about the hikes will turn largely on how much the city and the state will pony up to pay their fair share.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s chief spokesman, Stu Loeser, said in a statement that while the city recognized the authority’s financial problems, “City taxpayers aren’t in a position to increase our subsidy over the billion-dollars-plus we already provide each year.” He added, “That’s why we are looking forward to hearing the Ravitch commission’s findings about how the M.T.A. can find new revenue sources on both the expense and capital sides.”

The authority official, who discussed the budget proposal on the condition of anonymity because it had not been made public, said the authority had not worked out details but expected the higher fare to bring in about $200 million.

The authority is required by law to operate with a balanced budget.

To achieve that, the new budget plan envisions an infusion of more than $300 million from the city and the state. Even with that additional aid, the authority will still need to raise fares and tolls and impose a variety of belt-tightening measures to close its budget gap.

When the authority raised fares in March, it kept the base subway and bus fare unchanged, at $2, after having proposed to raise it to $2.25.

It was not clear whether the base fare would rise next year, but the authority has said in the past that it prefers to make such increases in 25 cent increments, because its MetroCard vending machines are not set up to dispense coins smaller than quarters.

Still, only a minority of subway and bus riders pay the base fare. Most use either unlimited-ride MetroCards or the pay-per-ride MetroCards that provide a 15 percent bonus on purchases of $7 or more.

There are many ways the authority could increase overall subway and bus fare revenue by 8 percent — for example, through a combination of raising the base fare, lowering the pay-per-ride bonus and raising the cost of the unlimited-ride MetroCards, and the various fare types would not necessarily increase by the same percentage amount.

The attempt to increase revenue by 8 percent would also apply to commuter rail tickets on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad and tolls on the authority’s bridges and tunnels, which include the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. There, too, different types of tickets and tolls, including E-ZPass and cash tolls, could have varying increases, as long as the overall revenues rise by 8 percent.

Ray Rivera contributed reporting.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY