As the end of the day arrived in Albany yesterday and Passover fell, the State Senate adjourned until April 20. With a budget in the books, state representatives have all gone home for the holidays. Yet, the MTA’s uncertain future rests heavily on the Senate.

In just over seven weeks, the MTA will raise the fares a whopping 23 percent. Single subway and bus rides will cost $2.50. The 30-day unlimited MetroCards will cost $103 instead of $81. A few weeks later, the MTA will begin cutting service and firing employees across the entire New York City Metropolitan Area. No one will be happy, and the Senators seem to know this.

To that end, the Senators are still trying to come up with a funding plan for the fiscally-strapped transit agency. According to the Times Herald-Record, the various Senate plans consist of some of the following options:

• Imposing new state and/or regional fees on car registrations and driver’s licenses
• Adding new surcharges to taxi fares and parking garage fees in New York City
• Levying new fees on car rentals
• Adopting a modified payroll tax
• Increasing the MTA-dedicated sales tax
• Dedicating a percentage of the state income tax

The smartest and most equitable option — tolling the East River bridges — seems dead and buried. Despite that omission, though, this list is far from breaking news. At various points over the last year, politicians and transit advocates have proposed some combination of these factors. In my opinion, these measures will result in a temporary fix and don’t help the MTA secure a stream of revenue that would allow them to expand while meeting the demands of an operating budget. This are political stop-gaps designed by politicians and not policy-based solutions set forward by experts.

For now, though, that’s rather here nor there. As the State Senate left yesterday, though, their words were again alarming. Martin Dilan, head of the Senate Transportation Committee, stopped to talk to Politicker NY on the way out the door. “We were really trying to get something done, but this ‘rush’ thing really doesn’t work,” he said. “Basically, what’s on the table is a $25 registration fee for the 12 counties; there’s also a possibility of an additional cent or two within the 12 county region.” The fee is for keys; the tax, gas.

A few Senators have followed the bolded line of reasoning, and I don’t see the reality behind it. The Governor convened the Ravitch Commission in June of 2008, nine months ago. At that point, the entire state was put on notice that the MTA was struggling financially. Richard Ravitch released a preliminary report in September and a final report in December.

Between December and the end of March, the MTA held numerous hearings on the commission’s report and their proposed fare hikes with and without the money from that report’s proposals. During that entire time — during the past nine months — the State Senate did nothing to address an obvious and known problem. Now, after the MTA Board approved the Doomsday budget and seven weeks before it’s set to be implementing, State Senators are still bemoaning a time table they deem to be rushed.

That is, in a word, ludicrous. The time for excuses is over; the time to act is now. If the Senators need more than nine months to come up with a plan, perhaps we need some new Senators.

We join today’s episode of “As the MTA Turns” now in progress.

As the State Democrats bicker about taxes and tolls, party leaders in the both the Assembly and Senate are trying to reach across the aisle to garner GOP support. State Republican leaders, however, are loathe to embrace any MTA funding package and believe that transit proponents are overstating the severity of the financial crisis.

Newsday’s James T. Madore has more:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) warned jobs would be lost at the upstate factories making buses and commuter trains for the authority while Long Island commuters faced exorbitant fare hikes. The regions mentioned are represented by Republicans, who hold 30 of the 62 seats in the Senate.

Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans), the majority leader, was more conciliatory, saying he appreciated Republicans’ insistence that a rescue of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority be paired with money for roads and bridges on the Island and upstate. He said a meeting Monday with Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) had encouraged him.

Smith needs GOP help because of a rebellion in Democratic ranks over funding the MTA with bridge tolls on the now-free East River and Harlem River bridges, and a payroll tax on employers in the 12 counties served by the authority. Democrats’ narrow majority means the objections of one senator can scuttle a deal.

While these politicians now seem to be fighting as hard they can for the MTA, something that I didn’t mention this morning in the PCAC report leapt out at me. It’s rather relevant considering the politicking going on in Albany these days.

Embedded in the section assessing the overall effectiveness of the MTA was this paragraph on lobbying efforts:

While there have been more visible efforts by the MTA in recent months to press the New York State legislature and the U.S. Congress for increased predictable financial support, these initiatives must be enhanced and sustained. As the largest transit system in the U.S., with a full agenda of needed improvements and rapidly growing ridership, the MTA must aggressively promote its critical role in the economic vitality of the New York City region. As part of that effort, MTA must do better in quantifying the number of jobs that will be created by its capital and state-of-good-repair programs. When its dire financial situation was accelerating in the fall of 2008, the MTA was slow to produce these figures and slow to publicize them. Information about the impact of service cuts on the constituencies of NYS legislators was also delayed. Finally, the Authority did not harness the energy of rider advocates who could serve as a powerful voice on MTA’s behalf.

That assessment is right on the mark. For too long, the opponents of a sensible funding plan — requiring bridge tolls and other fees on businesses and services that benefit from a fully functional transit agency — have been winning the PR war. The MTA, while vocal, hasn’t been an organizing factor, and rider advocacy organizations haven’t enjoyed the coherence or the support they should be showing.

With Passover nearly upon us and Easter on the horizon, straphangers may have to wait until next week for another update from Albany. As each day that passes, we grow one day closer to service cuts and fare hikes. That’s bad news for everyone.