Growing up, I learned to always say please when I wanted something. Now, one New York State Assembly member is suggesting that maybe the Metropolitan Transportation Authority should try the same approach.
Richard Brodskey (pictured at right), representative from the 92nd Assembly District in Westchester, suggested last week that the MTA should ask Albany for more money as a way to avoid a fare hike. Another Assembly member, Linda Rosenthal of Manhattan’s West Side, echoed Brodsky’s sentiments.
MTA Elliot “Lee” Sander notes that he would gladly accepted state money if the legislative and executive bodies could deliver. But, as The Daily News notes, history is not on the side of the subways:
“We’ll take the money,” Sander said. “Maybe we will look at being more ambitious in our requests than we have been.”
The state has been shortchanging the MTA for years, the transit officials said. Money that has been raised through a series of taxes was earmarked for mass transit, but state government never passed the required legislation to send it to the MTA. For the first time, the governor’s office has indicated it will abide by the formula, and the MTA expects that to bring approximately $330 million into its operating budget next year.
To Sander, I say, “Go for it.” No one has ever come out behind by asking for more. With Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, the two men most guilty for diverting those funds earmarked for the MTA, out of office, maybe the MTA could even get that money from Spitzer and the legislature.
For Bodsky though, I have to wonder about his intentions. He was, after all, one of the Assembly members who killed the congestion pricing. It’s great that he’s offering Sander his advice, but the MTA would have had access to plenty of funds if Brodsky and others had passed the original congestion fee plan. Now, Sander has to go hat in hand to a legislature that seems fairly hostile to New York City.
The subways need the money to meet the demands of a growing city. Will the State of New York step up and give it to the MTA?
3 comments
Brodsky’s current take is typical of the bizarre mentality of political figures that are so misguided they,at times, may be so far out in space that they’ll never be retrived. And that may be a good thing!
“You didn’t say please, you didn’t say please”
[…] pan out, our options are severely limited. Maybe now will be a good time for the MTA to ask Richard Brodsky for some money. After all, he promised them funds last July if only they would […]