Albany lawmakers used money that should have gone to the MTA to fund other state obligations. (Source: Streetsblog)

When Albany approved a series of emergency budget reappropriations in late November, they did so under the public guise of a deficit. The money wasn’t there, they said, and so they had to take away over $100 million from the MTA.

At the time, an MTA press release sort of highlighted how the state hadn’t been broke but had basically stolen the money for the MTA and reappropriated it. “This is the first time that an existing appropriation to the MTA from dedicated MTA taxes has been reduced after collection by the state,” the release said.

Today, Ben Fried and John Kaehny at Streetsblog explain how this accounting sleight of hand amounts to state-sponsored robbery. Albany took money that should have gone to the MTA and simply moved it to another account. Talk about your two sets of books.

I’ll quote at length what the two had to say, but do visit Streetsblog if you don’t already:

The overwhelming majority of the $143 million reduction in transit funding did not originate from the state budget. Instead, Albany took dedicated transit tax revenues from the MTA and redirected them to the state’s general fund. In effect, Albany stole $118 million from transit to subsidize the rest of the state budget. That’s enough money to restore all the subway and bus cuts currently on the table in the MTA’s austerity plan.

How did they pull off the heist? To explain, we need to give a short intro to the MTA operating budget.

In addition to fares and tolls, MTA service is mainly funded by an array of dedicated taxes, which total about $4.5 billion every year. A smaller portion comes from “state and local subsidies,” of which Albany is supposed to contribute about $190 million. Already, we’re only talking about a small fraction of the MTA’s nearly $12 billion operating budget.

But here’s the thing — Albany’s “contribution” consists almost entirely of tax revenue that’s already dedicated to transit. This year, Albany put just $7 million from the general fund into MTA operations, according to the state Division of the Budget. The rest of its obligation to the MTA — $183 million — came from dedicated transit taxes.

So when the state made off with $143 million from the MTA budget in the December deficit reduction package, lawmakers were not reducing the state’s contribution to transit so much as raiding the MTA piggy bank and robbing transit riders of funds collected specifically to serve them. When all was said and done, Albany had taken $118 million from dedicated MTA taxes…

The dedicated revenue source in question — the Metropolitan Mass Transportation Operating Assistance Fund (MMTOA) — was established in 1981 and consists entirely of taxes collected in the 12-county MTA region… So $118 million in downstate taxes, meant to fund transit exclusively, disappeared into the Albany money pit. Nothing in New York state law prevents the same thing from happening again.

Unfortunately, we can’t do very much right now, but Fried and Kaehny urge riders and advocates to be protective of our future funding initiatives. We could ask elected officials to prevent against agency theft. We could ask them to own up to their cuts. After all, the same representatives who approved this giant cut are the ones slamming the MTA for being broke. Politicians just shouldn’t be allowed to have their cake and eat it too.

As angry New Yorkers have rained scorn upon the heads of the MTA Board, new CEO and Chairman Jay Walder has been acutely affected by the people. “It’s tearing my heart out right now,” he said last week. “Last night at 1 o’clock in the morning I’m turning over in bed trying to figure out how to make the choices” about service cuts. Since Walder himself cannot order more taxes or higher state subsidies, he is left with but two choices: cut services or raise fares.

Despite this dilemma, Walder is willing to listen. The Daily News reported today that Walder has agreed to a hearing with students who are concerned about the impending elimination of the free Student MetroCard program. The MTA head will meet with students next Wednesday as they make the case for the student transit program, and he makes the case for an MTA very short on funds.

So what then can Walder do without money for the program and little political support from City Hall or Albany? When he meets with students, he must explain to them how the city and state should be funding the program and how those two governing bodies have abdicated their responsibilities to the MTA and, more importantly, to New York’s students. He should show him the chart above from Streetsblog and the one below while urging them to turn their rage toward our elected officials. After all, if the politicians won’t listen to students, who will they listen to?

Later this morning, at 9:30 a.m., the MTA Board will convene for its monthly meeting. Unlike previous months’ gatherings, February’s will be a fairly routine one. The service cut proposals are being digested, and while MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder will field some questions on yesterday’s announcement on job cuts, the big-ticket budgetary items won’t arise again until after next month’s public hearings.

Yet, the meetings will not be without some raucous controversy. Each month, the MTA begins its meeting with a public comment period, and today’s should witness some strident comments. TWU officials will speak out against the plan to lay off 500 union workers, and rider advocacy representatives will again bemoan the cuts. The biggest group there to present demands of the MTA will be the Students for Transportation Justice, an alliance of students seemingly organized with the help of the Working Families Party.

According to a release emailed out to writers last night, this coalition of student groups will attend the board meeting in an effort to gain an audience with Walder and to protest the planned elimination of the free Student MetroCard program. The students, said the WFP, “will attempt to deliver a letter to Chairman Walder signed by thousands of students, parents, and activists asking that the MTA hold an open meeting with student leaders and act to save student MetroCards.”

This isn’t the first time these students have tried to get Walder’s attention. Students for Transportation Justice sent Walder a letter in early February that went ignored, and the Working Families Party volunteered its services in a petition drive. As of this writing, the petition has received 13,391 signatures, and the WFP is trying to drum up support from a total of 50,000 New Yorkers.

There is but one problem with the WFP and its platform: It’s completely directed at the wrong people. Sure, these students can show up at MTAHQ later this morning and speak their minds during the opening minutes of the board meeting. They can also make a show of calling on the MTA to save Student MetroCards, but they will be preaching to the choir. It’s a matter of economics, and right now, the MTA does not have the money to fund free transit for students and shouldn’t be picking up the political slack on student transportation either.

The MTA said as much to me last week. “We agree that school children should not have to pay to get to school, but funding this service is the responsibility of the State and City,” Jeremy Soffin, agency spokesperson, said. “The MTA has been called the yellow school bus for New York City, and that’s a good analogy. All over the state school kids get picked up by yellow school buses, and they don’t pay to ride. But the bus doesn’t show up unless state or local government pays the bus company.”

Still, the Working Families Party, a pro-teachers union organization, is turning to the MTA and not to politicians who control the purse strings. Were the WFP to spend their efforts speaking out about Albany’s and City Hall’s dereliction of duty when it comes to funding for student transportation, attention would inevitably fall on the Department of Education. Why doesn’t the DOE fund student travel as DOEs do throughout the state and country? Eventually, pressure would build on the education officials, and the DOE would have to find more money for transportation. Pressure on the DOE would bring nothing but scrutiny to a beleaguered teachers union, and the Working Families Party can’t have that.

So we’re left with a movement with a message that winds up falling on the wrong ears. The WFP can rile up the crowd. They, as so many politicians do these days, can dump on the MTA. But it will be all for naught. Until activist groups and political parties put real pressure on Albany and City Hall, the MTA will be left flapping in the wind with empty pockets and no plans for free student MetroCards.

Calling New York a failed state in its current iteration isn’t too much of a stretch. We have a governor with no public support, and a State Senate that can’t stop its in-fighting long enough to pass any sort of legislation. When they do get their collective acts together for a long enough period of time to get something done, the results fall far short of what is promised as is the case with last May’s MTA funding package.

Over the weekend — unfortunately on a Saturday when fewer people are around to read it — The New York Times took Albany to task for its MTA failures. In a scathing editorial, the Gray Lady called upon Albany to find a better solution for the MTA. With a budget shortfall of nearly $800 million, the MTA is on borrowed time, and The Times succinctly outlines the sources of the shortfall. Tax revenues are down; the payroll tax brought in $200 million less than expected; fare revenue is down by $100 million; Albany cut $143 million; the upcoming TWU raises will cost the agency $100 million. It is a perfect storm of bad circumstances.

The Times though is concerned with the machinations in Albany right now. Writes the paper:

Now Governor Paterson is threatening to make things worse. In a clear pander to suburban voters in this year’s governor’s race, he is calling for cutting the payroll tax in seven suburban counties around the city while increasing the payroll tax in the city’s five boroughs.

A Legislature that is heavy on representatives from New York City is unlikely to go along — at least on raising the city’s taxes. The danger is that legislators, also facing voters this year, will decide to cut suburban payroll taxes without making up the loss to the transportation authority.

Some advocates are suggesting the agency shift some of its federal stimulus money — supposed to be reserved for maintenance, subway construction and upgrades — to use for operations. Transportation experts warn that if that happens, the system would deteriorate. Remember the ratty old subways of 30 years ago?

Albany must come up with a lasting solution for the M.T.A. That means leaving the payroll tax alone and finding new revenue sources — starting with tolls on Manhattan’s free bridges that could raise an estimated $600 million a year. It may mean raising fares, although that should be a last resort. It will mean supporting the new Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman, Jay Walder, including in his plans to lay off workers as he streamlines the system.

What it should not mean is doing away with free passes for needy students. Both the state and city will have to contribute more to help pay $214 million a year to help keep these students in school.

The transit system that feeds the New York City area is crucial to the welfare and commercial vitality of the entire state. Governor Paterson and the Legislature have a responsibility to make sure it has the money it needs to keep working.

In a nutshell, this editorial tracks closely with everything I’ve been writing over the last few months. Albany must find a better solution. It’s time to renew the push for East River Bridge Tolls. It’s time for a sensible solution for transit in a city more heavily dependent on its subways and buses than any other in the nation.