Home MTA EconomicsDoomsday Budget Playing the blame game as hike vote looms

Playing the blame game as hike vote looms

by Benjamin Kabak

At 9:30 a.m., the MTA will meet — or will have met, depending upon when you read this — to vote on, among other items, a 23 percent fare hike and massive service cuts to its transportation offerings. While a prior commitment will prevent me from live-blogging the proceedings, you can catch a webstream here. The fare hike happenings will be early on, and I’ll have an update on site as soon as I’m back at my computer.

Meanwhile, on Doomsday Budget Eve, New York politicians and the newspaper editorial boards that love and loathe are all pointing fingers at one august body. Right now, the State Senate and its leaders on both sides of the aisle are getting creamed by pols and papers alike.

The party started earlier this week when the Daily News based both Malcolm Smith and Dean Skelos, the Senate Majority and Minority leaders respectively, for their failing to support the MTA. These politicians, both from transit-dependent districts, have known for a year about the transit doom heading New York City’s way, and then two of them stood by idly as comprehensive proposals to fix the MTA’s finances were supported by everyone else but the Senate.

Late yesterday afternoon, Sheldon Silver, the man responsible for killing congestion pricing in 2008, hopped on the Blame the Senate bandwagon. While Silver’s obstructionism last spring shut off one source of dedicate revenue for the MTA, he guaranteed that the Assembly would pass the Ravitch Plan. His statement:

Let me be clear, the Assembly Majority is ready to pass a plan to save the MTA and prevent a massive fare hike. Our plan would prevent the proposed cuts and fare hikes by sharing the burden of transit costs. Those who use the bridges would pay a toll that is equal to what New Yorkers pay for a subway or a bus ride, and employers would invest in the system through a small payroll tax. We had hoped that the Senate would support our plan. The Assembly is prepared to act on this proposal to avoid the huge fare increases and draconian service cuts that would have a devastating effect on all New Yorkers.

Mayor Bloomberg, echoing a famous line from Network, urged New Yorkers to call their Senators in Albany to urge them to save transit. “If Albany doesn’t come through, then the straphangers are going to have to bear the brunt of this. I don’t think that’s good for the system. I don’t think it’s good for our economy,” Bloomberg, a man who knows a thing or two about money, said. “But we cannot walk away from mass transit. We have to have it. So I hope it doesn’t get to that, but if it does, what I would suggest when you see what’s going to happen to your commuting costs, you should call your state legislators and say, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.'”

And finally, today’s editorial in The Times names names. Writes the Grey Lady of Republican Senators from New York who won’t deviate from the strict anti-Ravitch stance of the state G.O.P.:

Among city Republicans who should be interested in helping the M.T.A. are Senators Martin Golden of Brooklyn, Frank Padavan of Queens and Andrew Lanza of Staten Island. There are also a few Republicans upstate who should be trumpeting the Silver plan because of businesses in their districts that depend on the M.T.A. They include Senators Elizabeth Little of Glens Falls, Joseph Griffo of Rome and George Winner of Elmira.

As the State Senate turns its back on eight million riders a day, the M.T.A. can’t just wait. They could start preparing fare machines and scheduling delays set for June — unless Albany wakes up and comes to the rescue.

So that’s that. In 10 hours from my writing this, the MTA Board will have approved a fare hike/service cut plan to balance its budget as required by state law. Those who write the laws, though, won’t act and won’t take responsibility for their inaction. As Bloomberg and Silver do, as The Times and The Daily News do, I too blame our State Senate for the decline and fall of transit in New York City at a time when we need it most.

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11 comments

kynes March 25, 2009 - 7:38 am

This is a really pathetic situation and another example of why Albany is one of the most corrupt and ineffective governments in the United States.

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Scott E March 25, 2009 - 8:20 am

Usually when you see a “Call your Senators” campaign, the organization spearheading it (usually a nonprofit) offers a form-letter on their website. Fill in your name, address, maybe a sentence or two, and your local zip-code. The system identifies the appropriate politician(s), and a form letter instantly is faxed or emailed to their office. At a minimum, the senator’s email or fax numbers get published, along with a “sample letter”. A couple of blog posts and calls to the local media gives it plenty of publicity.

I checked the Straphangers Campaign website and found nothing of the sort. Does such a system exist somewhere? I’d start my own, but I don’t think my website-building skills are quite up to snuff.

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Laura March 25, 2009 - 9:28 am

I am also looking for something like this! Anyone?

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Cap'n Transit March 25, 2009 - 9:54 am

You can contact your Senators with this form.

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Streetsblog » Today’s Headlines March 25, 2009 - 9:10 am

[…] MTA Doomsday Is Here (NY1, News, 2nd Ave Sagas) […]

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EC March 25, 2009 - 10:34 am

Or you can look up your State Senators here:

http://www.senate.state.ny.us/.....h?OpenForm

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Screw the Times March 25, 2009 - 12:32 pm

Typical NY Times. Dems control the Senate and could pass an MTA bailout if they wanted to without a single Republican vote, but, of course, the Times blames the GOP. Not that the Times has any pretense whatsoever of objectivity, in any event.

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Benjamin Kabak March 25, 2009 - 12:40 pm

You’re looking at The Times in a one-day vacuum. The editorial board of The Times have spent far more ink slamming Malcolm Smith and the Democratic Senators than they have the GOP. Today’s editorial is simply another legitimate look at other NYC-based representatives who should have supported mass transit and didn’t.

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MTA Board approves May 31 fare hikes, service cuts :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog March 25, 2009 - 1:38 pm

[…] « Playing the blame game as hike vote looms Mar […]

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Scott E March 25, 2009 - 1:41 pm

Ben – as someone who has a better grasp on the whole situation than I do, what do you think of the link posted by Cap’n Transit above? Do think it would be beneficial for readers to use it? I’m not so sure it targets the correct individuals (Malcolm Smith isn’t mentioned at all). And for suburb-dwellers like myself, I’m not so sure it targets our locally elected officials; it certainly doesn’t address the “double-hit” we get on the commuter rail plus the subway.

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Octavius Tentacles March 25, 2009 - 2:36 pm

You’re right…it IS just you.

Reply

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