When the MTA started moving off of its net-zero labor demands a few months ago, we knew how this story would end. The MTA’s economic picture would improve as the region’s economy grew stronger, and the unions would demand a greater share of the pie. They would get their slice while the riders would get the scraps. Now that the MTA has sealed the deal with the TWU and LIRR unions, the financial picture for the next few years has taken shape, and lo and behold, riders are getting the bare minimum in service increases and biennial 4 percent fare hikes while the labor deals will cost $1.5 billion over the next four years.
As presented by the MTA on Monday during its monthly Board meetings and as later broadcast in a press release, the MTA anticipates that the new labor deals will result in annual increases in expenditures of $260 million. They swear, though, that the money won’t come from higher-than-anticipated fare hikes. Rather, the MTA will “reallocate” resources to pay for these labor costs as well as some service enhancements while maintaining pay-as-you-go funding for $5.4 billion worth of capital expenses for the next five-year plan. Without meaningful work rule reform, this is indeed a pyrrhic victory.
In fact, it may not even be a victory. The MTA will still take $80 million away from those PAYGO funds each year and simply have less to spend on capital projects. That’s one of the reasons the MTA faces a significant capital funding gap. Here’s the agency explaining other sources of money:
The plan makes several long-term trade-offs to ensure revenues meet ongoing obligations. Over the four-year period, supplemental contributions to an LIRR pension plan totaling $110 million will be eliminated, though all actuarially-required contributions will continue. Also, $254 million will be withdrawn, and additional contributions totaling $533 million will be suspended for four years, from a discretionary fund for future retiree health benefits which has no mandatory funding level. The plan also reduces pay-as-you funding for the MTA Capital Program by $80 million per year, which is equivalent to a $1.5 billion reduction in Capital Program funding capacity.
And how about the rest of us? Tell the people what they’ve won. For $15.5 million, we’re going to get….weekend J train service to Broad St. some time in mid-2015, extensions of service to Gateway Center II along the B13 and B83 bus routes, and added service along the Bx5. Staten Island residents will enjoy more frequent SIR and bus service to lineup with the increased overnight ferry service, and we’ll get two more Select Bus Service routes next year. Transit is also planning to better respond to signal problems in order to cut down unplanned service issues during the day.
Now, I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it’s easy to see who gets the better end of that deal. This is the fiscal reality we live in though. The unions outlasted the MTA’s economic downturn, and the rest of us get saddled with a disproportionate amount of the costs without enjoying a similar share of the benefits. Less money for capital expenses; service improvements that raise just barely above the “token” level and more delays for future expansion and technology infrastructure projects — it’s all just part of the same old song and dance.
26 comments
What a disaster. And the LIRR really is the worst of it; the fake-disability scandal continues unabated, and the work rules still date from steam trains.
It should have been shut down. Long Island doesn’t even vote for transit service.
OK – I’ll bite. If the LIRR is shut down as you suggest, do you have any idea what the impact of such a decision would be?
1. Lets start with lower property values & asociated property tax colections (both residential & commercial). This could cause a negative feedback loop of increasing costs for less & less service by town & county governments. Plus don’t forget about each & every school district would also be impacted.
2. Increasing road congestion & little place to park the thousands of single occupent cars going to the city each day. Some might carpool, but most won’t.
3. You could also have a rapid migration from Long Island or these residents may even choose to leave the NYC area all together causing ecconomic ripple effects elsewhere. That is not to say that things like this aren’t happening, rather it will become even more obvious.
Good points, of course. But I don’t see them as criticisms.
“1. Lets start with lower property values & asociated property tax colections (both residential & commercial). This could cause a negative feedback loop of increasing costs for less & less service by town & county governments. Plus don’t forget about each & every school district would also be impacted.”
That sounds familiar; as a result, I have no sympathy.
Long Island won’t vote to take care of themselves. They vote for politicians who oppose public transportation, then demand it. These same politicians do the same damn thing on other issues. And don’t get me started on the endless “authority” and “special district” corruption scandals in Long Island, which are, unbelievably, worse than in the rest of the state.
Given that, let Long Island deal with the deterioration cycle which upstate NY already had to deal with; in our case it was mostly due to national deindustrialize-the-Northeast policies which we had little influence over. In LI’s case, it would be due to their own politicians.
“2. Increasing road congestion & little place to park the thousands of single occupent cars going to the city each day. Some might carpool, but most won’t.”
This won’t happen, not for long. NYC’s congested enough already that they won’t be able to keep that up. They will move instead (see #3).
“3. You could also have a rapid migration from Long Island or these residents may even choose to leave the NYC area all together causing ecconomic ripple effects elsewhere. That is not to say that things like this aren’t happening, rather it will become even more obvious.”
Bring it on. Nassau and Suffolk are at serious flooding risk with the new rises in sea level, and the sooner they’re depopulated the better.
Yeah, I’m being pretty hostile — but what has Long Island (east of Queens) ever done for me? Nothing. Meanwhile, it’s draining funds from New York City, which *has* done things for me, and it’s draining funds from the state as a whole.
There’s many problems with the situation in New York City (some of which Larry Littlefield has described), but frankly, we can’t shut down New York, we are too dependent on it. We can shut down Long Island; it’s a gratuitous appendage. The fact that Long Island also has the most spectacular corruption seems to me to make it an appropriate place to start trying to draw a line somewhere.
Let the grifters keep sucking money out of Long Island (and NYC), and both will collapse eventually.
Shut down the LIRR for a while and, yes, property prices might fall. Good. Younger people will able to buy with less. And perhaps after Generation Greed has left the island after selling for less, the LIRR could be restarted without the grifters.
This place needs to change. And soon. Keeping all the scams going isn’t helping anyone.
What are the two upcoming SBS routes? M60SBS, and….? (Please say M86SBS!)
Please tell me you’re not being serious right now.
M60SBS already exists.
The two new ones are TBD.
Will woodhaven count as one or two SBS lines? It’s currently two limited services.
the B46 Ltd might be the next one because Utica already has bus lanes painted
“And how about the rest of us? Tell the people what they’ve won. For $15.5 million.”
What percent increase in service does that represent over four years? And what increase in ridership is expected?
They powerful and privileged just keep squeezing the serfs. The real estate industry forces those who aren’t in on a deal to pay more for less and less space. And the political/union class squeezes the riders into less and less space as well.
Those who already have more get more. Those who don’t are expected to be grateful if they aren’t forced to settle for less still. Until a recession comes along, when taxes are raised and services are cut “due to circumstances beyond our control.” And that becomes the new baseline for what the serfs are entitled to.
Gee whiz…The Jetsons premiered in the 60s!! where’s the advancement in technology?? imagine replacing all the lazy/inept MTA workers with robots!! think of all the money we could save and use towards capital improvements/expansion. some of those workers are so surly!! especially the token booth clerks, they’ve got to go!!! i dream for the day our transit system is as advanced as Europe/Asia…oh well….
What’s the over/under on how long it takes from when the first driverless bus is run in another city to when it runs for the first time in NYC? Even with the added cost of occasional fare inspectors in a POP system well used bus lines are profitable at that point.
George Jetson still had a job and had to drive his own car. Only domestic workers were replaced with robots which is what my Roomba complains about.
Anyone prepared to demand the phase II of the Second Avenue Subway, which was originally part of Phase I? And say New Yorkers have been cheated by the unions, contractors and politicians acting as a criminal enterprise if we don’t get it?
We’re talking about two cut and cover stations between already built trackways, plus a curve to a more sophisticated station that would allow the transfer from the Lex and MetroNorth.
The latter is critical, as it would not only improve access to the institutional complex along the East River, an important job center in its own right, but also provide some redundancy for the Lex for those coming down from the Bronx. Replacing the signals on the Lex, with all the associated GOs, will be a nightmare without it.
You are in a position to demand *nothing*. I, on the other hand, am in a position to *grant* nothing
There should simply be a fare increase that dollar-for-dollar captures the contract cost. That would help align riders’ interests. Hiding it this way shows no guts.
Recently when cost overruns hit the new transbay terminal going up in SF (which will be a end point for Caltrain, and replace the existing transbay buses, plus supposedly a future space for HSR). It’s been funded with air and development rights. Instead of just shrugging and paying more (like we seem to do in NYC), they cut elements from the design. Something is wrong in the way our projects are funded if cost overruns mean we just go further into debt. That doesn’t work under California law. That’s part of the problem here.
Oh, they cut scope allright. Believe me.
Getting far less than you thought you were getting when you agreed to a price doesn’t solve the problem either.
Isn’t that what happened to the 10th avenue stop on the 7?
Commuter rail on the new Tappan Zee?
Not building the next phase of SAS could fit in too.
same old song and dance — if you like it, keep elected democarats, in bed with the unions.
In this state, the Republicans are no different. Don’t kid yourself.
Where is the biggest labor injustice of the past decade. Note how everyone is in on it.
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/.....gop/71371/
This caused payouts by the NYC teacher pension fund to jump by $1.1 billion per year over a couple of years. It sucked huge money out of the classroom. But no one dares to talk about it.
Pataki signed by the retroactive pension increase in 2000. Like Giuliani, Bloomberg, Lindsay, Rockefeller (Republicans all) he wanted to be President and didn’t want the public employee unions spending money in opposition.
Cuomo wants to be President too.
The future of New York doesn’t seem so important when you are hoping to move to Washington.
At least Rockefeller had delusions of grandeur, and as a result built a hell of a lot of stuff which we’re still using. I can say nothing good about Lindsay, and I can say a lot of bad things about Giuliani.
On the other hand, they’ll have to trade New York’s transit system for DC’s. Not that they ride either, but that’s certainly a step down.
Yes, I realize most Repubs are no great shakes either.
What about CBD in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx where the lines meet and diverge. The signal and switches are important to be maintained in frequent rush hour service. Extend the 5 to Flatbush on the weekends.
Of course nothing about taking steps to increase bus reliability, the most serious bus problem. It continues to be ignored.