I certainly picked an eventful week to go on vacation, eh? Between signal fires near Coney Island and torrential rains that of course led to some subway flooding, the past few days have been chock full o’ service changes. But much like everything else in New York, the subway system goes on even when people leave for a few days. I’ll be doing some more traveling this week, but this time, my journeys will be within the U.S. I’ll try to post as often as I can.
As I dig through my backlog of news, I start with a story from the end of last week. A new Quinnipiac Poll on all things New York found some intriguing numbers when it comes to the MTA. Despite the fact that most New Yorkers begrudgingly deal with the authority on a daily basis, they want to see more economic support for the MTA.
The first question concerned the overall level of support for the MTA. “As you may know,” the poll asked, “the MTA is the agency which provides rail and bus service in the NY Metropolitan area. Do you think the state government should provide additional funds to the MTA, or not?” The answer shows a clear geographical divide.
A whopping sixty-two percent of New York City residents say the state government should provide additional funds, but only 41 percent of suburbanites and just 30 percent of upstate New Yorkers agree. Of course, that’s not too surprising considering upstate New York’s love-hate relationship with the city. They love to take our tax dollars; they have to use the New York economy to bolster some poor areas. But they refuse to offer up any modicum of support. New York City wouldn’t get much state money if it were up to people who don’t live here. That’s just the reality of New York’s blue state/red state internal divide.
The support from within the five boroughs isn’t too surprising either, but it’s a comforting figure in an age when politicians are loathe to do anything to help the MTA. New York City commuters know that more state support will keep fares lower and keep services running frequently. We’ve seen what happens when the MTA cuts services, and no one wants to live through it. Too bad no one in Albany is listening.
The next question concerned the controversial MTA payroll tax. Passed a few years ago to bolster the MTA’s seriously sagging bottom line, it was the politically viable alternative to any congestion pricing plan. It hasn’t been popular in the seven counties outside of New York City, and politicians such as Lee Zelding keep releasing trumped-up press releases about overturning the tax without offering any real funding solutions instead.
The question: “Currently, employers in New York City and the suburban areas served by the MTA pay a special tax to help the transit agency. Do you think that tax should be increased, remain the same, decreased, or eliminated?”
The results: 46 percent of New York City residents said the tax should remain the same while 15 percent said it should be increased. Just 33 percent of suburban residents said the tax should remain the same while 10 percent said it should be increased and 40 percent said it should be eliminated.
Now, those numbers are far from a mandate on the payroll tax. It enjoys a majority of support within the city and a bare plurality outside. But while politicians make noises about “job-killing taxes” and forensic audits that will magically turn up $1.5 billion in annual savings, New York voters seem to recognize the importance of the revenue generated by the tax. Overturning it without providing for other streams of dollars would be a mistake.
So we like to complain about the subways, but it seems as though enough people understand the dynamics of MTA financing to warrant a closer look from Albany. The politicians though are as silent as they always are.
18 comments
Instead of starting another Upstate-Downstate debate that inflames passions but goes nowhere, maybe we can pool our interests and work together. We’re frustrated up here because we pay ridiculously high taxes and have seen economic conditions get worse and worse – we never miss the recessions but saw tepid growth at best during the early 2000’s, for example. A lower cost of living and an educated workforce should make this region a natural for business but high taxes and energy costs and uncompetitive state mandates drive away companies and discourage new ones from setting up here. I wholeheartedly support a state transportation overhaul that dedicates revenue equitably for mass transit statewide and transportation improvements in general, but we need Downstate support for overhauls in taxes and regulations to put Upstate more on a par with other states we are competing with for new business. We need to work together as New Yorkers.
I understand where you are comeing from, but the political reality is that the majority of NY state residents live within the 12-county region, however the power base lies in those areas that keep losing population such as Rochester, buffalo & syracuse.
The only real solution is to cut NY state in two. The NYC metro area including Long Island & the lower Hudson Valley including the 845 area code & the rest becomes it’s own state.
I’d put it differently.
Upstate is also being screwed by the state government, but doesn’t seem to recognize it; unfunded mandates are killing local upstate governments, but somehow politicians who oppose *funding* those mandates at a state level (with the income tax) get elected to state office. Probably due to habit; there are far too many vote-Republican-without-turning-brain-on types up here, and far too many vote-incumbent-without-turning-brain-on types too.
The Upstate-Downstate divide is exacerbated by the fact that it’s never been harder to *get* from upstate to downstate — it’s easier to get to NYC from Boston or Philly. And the old economic links — upstate shipping massive amounts of produce downstate — have been cut. If we built high speed rail, maybe that would change the first problem, and surely we could come up with some way to solve the second problem (it’s not like you have an excess of fresh agricultural produce in NYC).
Who the hell cares what people not named Sheldon Silver, Dean Skelos, or Andrew Cuomo think?
Lets eliminate the payroll tax, but create residential parking permits instead. Private parking garage taxes will sky rocket.
The reality of the situation is that Upstate is sucked dry by taxes and regulations imposed by left-wing downstaters. If we were a separate state we’d have lower taxes, fewer regulations and be more like New Hampshire (prosperous) than a red state (slowly dying). We don’t need and don’t want the so-called “services” you think are being provided. Exasperating!
You don’t need or want sewers and roads? Really?
You’d be the definition of a third-world red state if you left NY State. NYC is the only thing keeping this state alive.
My point exactly. If they HATE there association with New York, they should be their own state.
‘Third-world’ is a little harsh – Upstate would be much like Ohio if it were it’s own state.
There’s some truth to that, at least. “North New York” would certainly be doing a lot more with its Marcellus Shale opportunity than the combined state (you wouldn’t have NYC politicians interested in protecting the city’s watershed).
Well if they’re fine with poisoning their ground water, power to them. The people of Montana and Wyoming are *loving* the wonderful side effects of their politicians opening up every inch of their states to be raped and pillaged by miners and natural gas extraction ventures (fracking).
In fact, most of us are not fine with having poisoned, flaming water. We’ve seen what happened in Pennsylvania.
The obnoxious part is that Andrew Cuomo seems willing to protect NYC and leave upstate out to die. People get their water from wells up here! Our aquifers are just as important as the NYC watershed!
I’m not sure how the likes of Dean Skelos, George Pataki, or Joseph Bruno qualify as “left-wing,” and Bruno isn’t even a downstater. And the Upstate delegation of assemblymen and senators, in either party, don’t seem to give too much of a crap about regulations as long as they can line their pockets with pork extracted from the city.
We have a few decent upstate Assemblymembers and State Senators.
But I could count them on the fingers of one hand. Which is not good.
Most of the upstate delegation really do not seem to give a crap about anything but posturing — or perhaps they’re just stupid.
The cities, villages, towns, and counties are suffering from a huge list of state-mandated obligations which the state refuses to pay for — but instead of “mandate relief” (funded by INCOME TAX on rich NYC types making over $500,000 per year) we get bullshit “property tax caps”. Which will simply result in us losing our fire departments and losing our road maintenance, because those AREN’T state mandated….
They have no incentive to encourage bold policy changes, and for the most part they can do whatever they want and get reelected. Why even risk shaking things up when you’re so secure?
Out of curiosity, what mandates anyway?
Ignorant. We need upstaters to get a CLUE. I say this as someone from upstate.
We do have a serious problem with “unfunded mandates”, where the state government decides something is a good idea (fine), orders the local government to do it instead of the state government (not so good), and then tells the local government to pay for it with property taxes (really bad).
Those mandates do NOT include fire protection or road service, which are therefore going to be the first to get cut with the asinine “property tax cap”.
We need to increase the income tax on the richest New Yorkers (incomes over, say, $500,000/year) and pay for all those mandates at the STATE level. If we did that, the localities upstate would have half a chance.
The solution to the payroll tax is as I described it: take bus service away from the MTA and turn it over to New York City and the counties.
NYC and the counties can either keep the payroll tax to subsidize buses, or drop it. Other state aid now used to subsidize the operating expenses of downstate buses could be shifted to the MTA Capital Plan. NYC could keep the free transfers, but only if a joint bus/subway ride counted as a subway fare not a bus fare.
There is reason for everyone to believe this would make them a winner. NYC accounts for 87% of payroll tax revenues, and has the highest share of its costs covered by the fare. Most of the suburban counties don’t have bus service provided by the MTA. And Nassau County just refuses to believe it is getting a sweet deal.