Comments on: The impact of overturning the payroll tax

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:25:37 +0000

It’s not blaming the MTA’s problems on Assembly Republicans by any means. It’s highlighting how an not-insignificant number of representatives want to do away with a major source of MTA financing.

As to your initial claim, George Pataki and Joe Bruno beg to differ. The Democrats’ new-found plenary power is relatively new, and the Republicans — including Giuliani — are largely responsible for underfunding the MTA throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

By: Older and Wiser

Older and Wiser — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:42:50 +0000

If Jay Walder really wants to be transformative, step one will have to be raising the fare to cover current operating costs. Next, continue to explore ways to cut those costs in an orderly manner.

For example, auditing costs. The infamous Hevesi audit, which alleged two sets of books, so spooked MTA management, that it encouraged itself to be audited to death ever after. Insiders tell me that one third to one half of MTA’s administrative overhead is made necessary by echelons of overzealous auditors, federal, state, MTA internal, and hired outside firms. Their findings presume an unlimited budget for generating and retaining cya paperwork, and impose a best practices burden on agency IT departments that no private firm would ever allow itself to be saddled with.

By: Marc Shepherd

Marc Shepherd — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:24:41 +0000

If you are proposing to have the state cover poor folks’ rides out of general revenues. If you repeal the payroll tax, where do you think those revenues would come from?

By: E. Aron

E. Aron — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:46:49 +0000

I don’t think the article blamed the three Republicans in question for the MTA’s problems, it just highlighted that they are moving to repeal the payroll tax. Otherwise, I agree with everything you advance in your comment.

By: Al D

Al D — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:07:08 +0000

To the last sentence of this article. Please see the ’70s and early ’80s. Funny, we’ll have a world class city with third world transit. Hopefully an opportunisitc entrepreneur can come along and provide a privately funded (albeit expensive) alternative to transit since no one in government cares.

By: SEAN

SEAN — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:51:10 +0000

Republicans for the most part don’t like funding transit for several reasons. They range from wasteful gov. spending to the fact only that 5% to 10% of the population use it, so they say that those users should pay for it intentionally forgetting that most transportation funds subsidize roads & not transit. I wonder does the oil lobby have something to do with this? Hmmmmm.

When G W Bush was president highway funding & transit funding were merged as to forse transit agencies to fight for opperating monies that were going to be spent on road projects & would always leave transit systems comeing up short reguardless how much they faught despite the increase of new riders over the last few years.

By: Eric F.

Eric F. — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:37:00 +0000

Democrats have had plenary power over NYS government for years. Blaming the MTA’s problems on three powerless Assembly Republicans is lame. The payroll tax is also a silly idea. Making labor more expensive is a stupid economic pllicy, unless your express intent is to reduce employment. If you want to fund the MTA raise the fares to cover expenses and have NYS cover poor peoples’ rides out of general revenuies as welfare spending. Instead we have scores of indirect taxes to fund this agency, all to insulate the riders from teh cost of the MTA’s bloated labor union cost structure.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:54:01 +0000

The suburbs in question fund their public schools at between $20,000 and $25,000 per student. Anywhere else in the US, Republicans think even half that cost is a waste, and rail against further hikes in education spending. The right-wing thinktanks keep blasting inner cities like New York and Washington for spending about $15,000 per student.

So one would suggest to the Tea Party politicians to cut their districts’ school spending to what they think is acceptable for other people, and stop whining otherwise.