Gov. David Paterson knows he doesn’t have a ground-breaking plan to fund the MTA on tap. In fact, he is willing to admit that his plan is simply a stop-gap measure designed to halt a fare hike and avoid crushing service cuts, and he said as much this weekend.
“What I’m saying is, this is not a plan that I think is going to get a blue ribbon,” Paterson said to The Times on Saturday. “But what it does is it solves the huge immediate problem of the anxiety and fear that commuters have over the shocking increase in fares and the prospect of widespread service cuts.”
But while his plan doesn’t accomplish the long-term funding goals of the Ravitch Plan, Paterson wants a quick resolution to this MTA fiasco in Albany. After all, in four weeks, the MTA is set to raise fares throughout the system, and the transportation authority plans to begin rolling out the service cuts a few days later. Reportedly, Paterson has convinced Sheldon Silver and Malcolm Smith to help him, and if Smith and Silver can deliver the Senate and Assembly respectively, some sort of funding plan will fall into place.
Right now, though, the issue focuses around the four Democratic State Senators who have refused to support any plan with a payroll tax. Prior to this week, two Westchester Democrats and two Long Island Democrats refused to join their party in supporting a funding plan, but after Paterson introduced his school rebate plan, the Westchester Dems — Suzi Oppenheimer and Andrew Stewart-Cousins — moved back into the yea column. Senators Craig M. Johnson and Brian X. Foley remain opposed and are considering holding up the bill.
Paterson however feels that he can convince the two hold-outs. “My understanding is that prior to this they have been adamantly opposed,” the governor said. “Here they are still opposed, but at least it has promoted dialogue which is the way we usually try to resolve problems in the world.”
Paterson may face another potential obstacle in his school plan from the Assembly. Sheldon Silver, Assembly speaker, has raised concerns over the plan because he doesn’t want to see non-profit organizations and government agencies searching for tax refunds as a rule. Sheldon could still have the Assembly push his modified Ravitch Plan, forcing a conference meeting over the Senate’s and Assembly’s dueling bills.
Meanwhile, for all of this talk of a quick resolution, a few issues remain. First, the MTA is now facing an additional $600 million deficit, and it’s unclear if Paterson’s plan addresses this new hole. It’s also unclear if Paterson’s plan will fund future deficits, and we know unequivocally that his plan does not fund the capital budget. Despite its current operations problems, for the MTA to remain competitive and to offer New Yorkers a top transit systen, that capital plan needs to be funded.
In the end, Paterson is relying on his quick fix to restore both some semblance of economic order to the MTA and some of his long-gone political capital. If he can stave off the fare hikes and service cuts, he says, he’ll push the legislature to find money for the five-year capital plan later this year. Not only then is the politicking far from over, but the battle over the future of the MTA has really just begun.
5 comments
Where do they think the $$ for capital budget? Is it going to magically appear later in the year?
It will surely have to come from some combination of the same ideas the legislature has already rejected. But it does make sense to do something that at least staves off the steep fare increases and service cuts, and leave that problem for another day. A comprehensive solution clearly won’t pass right now (if ever).
I would rather see the fare hikes and service cuts actually go into effect than to see this half assed plan that will have us in this same situation next year or sooner.
If you actually used the services that are currently proposed to be cut, I doubt that you would be happy to see them disappear for even a day.
But if it would later lead to a fully-funded MTA, I’d rather have to suffer service cuts in the short term. If we let a half-assed plan pass now, it will take even more time and energy later to pass a sufficient capital budget plan.
The fare hike and service cut might be very painful in the short-run, but it would be enough to wake up the public to finally speak out against Albany for screwing the MTA time and time again.