As angry New Yorkers have rained scorn upon the heads of the MTA Board, new CEO and Chairman Jay Walder has been acutely affected by the people. “It’s tearing my heart out right now,” he said last week. “Last night at 1 o’clock in the morning I’m turning over in bed trying to figure out how to make the choices” about service cuts. Since Walder himself cannot order more taxes or higher state subsidies, he is left with but two choices: cut services or raise fares.
Despite this dilemma, Walder is willing to listen. The Daily News reported today that Walder has agreed to a hearing with students who are concerned about the impending elimination of the free Student MetroCard program. The MTA head will meet with students next Wednesday as they make the case for the student transit program, and he makes the case for an MTA very short on funds.
So what then can Walder do without money for the program and little political support from City Hall or Albany? When he meets with students, he must explain to them how the city and state should be funding the program and how those two governing bodies have abdicated their responsibilities to the MTA and, more importantly, to New York’s students. He should show him the chart above from Streetsblog and the one below while urging them to turn their rage toward our elected officials. After all, if the politicians won’t listen to students, who will they listen to?
8 comments
$7,000/student/year for yellow buses!!! That’s insane!
How many students take these buses? How much would it cost to build some new schools to obviate some of the need for these buses, and could that $7,000/student/year pay for new schools?
Also, does anyone know how much parochial schools pay for yellow school buses?
Ten years ago, we had to pay ~$1000 to take the bus to private school. I’m checking to see if I can verify that.
Update: According to my mom, it was nearly $2000 per year for a daily round trip. That’s the private school charge.
Since Walder himself cannot order more taxes or higher state subsidies, he is left with but two choices: cut services or raise fares.
And so now we’re not saying money can come from capital to cover operating (esp. since projects like the Fulton St. project keep sucking up gobs of stimulus funds)? And using stimulus funds, specifically the 10% for operating, that Walder so far hasn’t been willing to use?
But, yes, he should speak to these kids about the way the MTA is funded, and has been funded (though I think these kids are quick learners and will surprise Walder with the scope and depth of understanding they have on this issue). The more focus that can be placed on the people holding the purse strings, the better.
I also think we’ll be surprised at how willing Albany and City Hall will be to come to the rescue on this issue, should the MTA vote to go through with cutting the program’s funding. Of course, when that will happen, who knows, as I’ve been told the student cards aren’t on the voting agenda on the 24th.
Regardless of the merits of Fulton St or other capital projects, using that 10% for operations is really bad precedent. The capital budget can not be used for operations, or we’ll slide back into the subway system of the 1970s. The local political culture is not conducive to making rational decisions over populist pandering. Breach this barrier once, and it will get breached again and again, with an ever greater frequency.
Plus, the MTA’s gap is $750 million. The stimulus funds wouldn’t even plug 25 percent of that right now. It’s not even the same as sticking a finger in the dike.
It’ll have to be the City, Albany is so paralyzed because of the Patterson scandals that I’m not sure they could successfully appoint a dog catcher, let alone pass any kind of substantial requisition.
I’m replying really late to this, but just wanted to point out that those graphs are a bit misleading. A large majority of the budget for bus transportation is for special education pupils, whose transportation costs per pupil can be many times that of a general education student. The per-pupil cost for general education is nowhere near $7,000.
(Of course, I completely agree that the city and state should be paying more for the student MetroCards.)
[…] its part [so] that the program stays in place,” the truth remains that the city pays far more per student for yellow school bus transportation than it does for student MetroCards. The MTA is not a school […]