It’s the season of fare hike grandstanding for public officials. Yesterday, Andrew Saul, MTA Vice Chair and Republican Congressional hopeful, announced his politically expedient opposition to the fare hike. Today, our embattled Governor Eliot Spitzer has done the same. While this seems like a move to shore up his waning popularity, Spitzer is employing a rational that I think is fatally flawed to justify his opposition to the fare hike.
As many news outlets have reported (City Room, Daily Politics – Spitzer held a press conference and issued a statement outlining his opposition to the proposed hike:
I have been closely following the public hearings on the potential fare hike by the MTA and I’ve listened to the public’s serious concerns about paying more, especially while times are tight. At the same time, I am acutely aware of the need for state agencies and authorities to be fiscally responsible, pay down debt and plan for the future. So as the MTA considered a fare hike, my chief concern was making sure that fiscal responsibility was observed and that all avenues were explored before imposing an added burden on the public.
As the MTA updated its budget forecasts, their balance sheet yielded an additional $220 million. Based on the current economic climate that has so many New Yorkers feeling squeezed, it seemed only proper that this amount be returned to the riders. I am therefore calling on the MTA to use these funds to reduce the proposed fare and toll increase.
As City Room notes, Spitzer is talking solely about the $2 base fare here. He simply wants the other increases to be toned down a bit. However, considering that the Metrocard Vending Machines accept increases that are multiples of $0.25, the MTA can’t really lower the anticipated fare hike. While mentioning the economics of the current day, Spitzer ignores the environment. The MTA should be raising toll rates, in my opinion, to discourage driving and fund mass transit options along those road routes.
But that’s not the big flaw. Rather, Spitzer’s belief that the $220 million represents a satisfactory amount of money for the MTA ignores the MTA’s own budget projections. The MTA right now is predicting potential deficits of over $4 billion between now and 2011 if they don’t raise the fares. Even if those estimates are wrong on a magnitude of $220 million a year, that steal leaves the authority approximately $3 billion in debt because they have to repay outstanding debts from when the Authority refused to raise the fares in the 1970s. Have we not learned our history lessons yet?
Until someone else can come up with a long-term plan for the MTA’s economic health that allows for system growth and financial strength, I will support this fare hike. To me, it seems that Spitzer is another public official speaking out against something that he knows is inevitable in order to curry favor with a public that has largely turned against him.
Give us a solution or stay silent. Enough with the pandering at the expense of the MTA. The Authority is too important the long-term success of New York City to become a political pawn again.