As the MTA struggles to find billions of dollars to fund its capital plan, MTA COE and Executive Director Elliot “Lee” Sander is turning to the one place over which has control: the fare box. According to the New York Post, Sander said yesterday that the MTA would consider raising fares to fund their capital campaign if Albany doesn’t come through with more money. Just remember, folks: Sheldon Silver is the one to blame for the next fare hike. There’s no doubt about it. [New York Post]
How long until the next fare hike?
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Shelly Silver’s response is hard to understand. His district is not only in Manhattan, but much of it is along the route the Second Avenue Subway would cover. Why wouldn’t he be fighting for a proposal that generates capital dollars to fund, inter alia, the Second Avenue Subway?
I think he just hates Mayor Bloomberg and doesn’t feel that Bloomberg played the politics game too well with the congestion pricing proposal. It’s a really a shame that New York State politics has been reduced to Shelly Silver’s every whim, but that’s reality until his constituents vote him out.
Ben, I just don’t see this as a personal battle between Silver and the mayor. A major part of Shelly Silver’s job as a leader is to represent the Assembly Democrats and to manage the agenda to protect their interests. If there had been widespread public support for congestion pricing, Silver would no doubt have let it come up for a vote.
The support was just not there. Outside of a few liberal districts in Manhattan and northern Brooklyn, most people were skeptical about the benefits of the plan and wary of its costs. Their representatives in the legislature knew this and decided that they did not want the plan to go forward. Silver simply covered these legistors’ behinds by keeping them from having to go on the record with an up or down vote.
Yeah, but when the Speaker really wants something, there are ways he can twist arms. It just didn’t look like Silver truly cared whether or not this passed. He claimed he supported it, but it was “support” of the most lukewarm kind imaginable.
The most angered of all New Yorkers by the failure of congestion pricing should be Shelly Silver’s constituents. They will be further condemned to having multitudes of toll-avoiding commuters driving each day over the free East River bridges, and clogging up the streets in his district. He had a chance to rectify that situation, and he failed. Of course, he also was able to dole out $7.5mm in goodies to his district, more than all of the Assembly Republicans had to give. So while he preserves his lifetime appointment as Speaker, the day-to-day residents of his district will suffer. Great way to serve your constituents.