Apr
03
Senate faces April 20 deadline from Gov.
ByDavid Paterson will see this through. The New York State Governor has told the Senate that, starting April 20, he will keep the legislature in Albany unless and until an MTA bailout package is passed. Transportation Committee head Martin Dilan told Politicker NY’s Jimmy Vielkind that nothing will happen soon but that he expects a deal to get done around that time. The Senate, according to Dilan, is musing “a menu of about seven options” including taxi fare surcharges, gas taxes and license and automobile registration fees. What the politically feasible plan will be is anyone’s guess.
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The “politically feasible plan” is the one that satisfies your campaign donors the most and delays the inevitable crisis until after the next election.
This is incredibly frustrating. Reading the news several months ago, you would see quotes from the state legislature saying that they were waiting for the results of the Ravitch Commission before enacting a transit funding plan. When the findings were published, there was no response. Now, only with the straphangers’ backs against the wall, do the lawmakers turn to the issue. The gutless response has been to reject the Ravitch recommendations and attempt to start all over with a “menu of options”. Now, with less than a month before the cuts and hikes become irreversible, these lawmakers think they can come up with a more realistic, equitable, and sound plan for a recurring funding source for the lifeblood of NYC’s and NYS’s economies? It’s a vicious cycle that is sure to end in a half-baked, temporary fix.