Gov. Paterson yesterday ordered the MTA to go back to the drawing board to avert a proposed 8 percent fare hike.
Forced to close a $700 million gap, the MTA said it is planning to take drastic measures to deal with the shortfall, including asking for savings from labor, increased aid from the city and state and, most controversially, raising fares and tolls in July 2009 for a second straight year.
“What I am asking the MTA is to go back and take another look at their books because if all the people are going to have to endure a fare hike this soon after the last fare hike, just in my opinion, [it] is not wise,” Paterson said. “There’s got to be a way to prevent a hike.”
The proposed 8 percent hike – more than double the recent increase of 3.85 percent and being enacted six months earlier than the agency had previously planned – could be reduced or delayed with a larger government subsidy, transit advocates said.
But the city said don’t count on it.
“There certainly is not going to be more money coming from the city; we don’t have it,” Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.
“If the state mandated that we ever put more money in, we would have to raise city taxes.”
Gene Russianoff, of the Straphangers Campaign, fired back: “The city now gives so little to a transit system that makes New York possible, it’s like they are jumping the turnstile.”
Paterson was less firm about the possibility of upping the state’s contribution.
“With our economic climate, I can’t tell you anything about what decisions are going to be made in the next year,” he said.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint slapped down the idea that his the union could be pressed to chip in with cost savings.
“As far as we are concerned and as far as the facts show, we have already paid our fare,” he said.
“At a time when it’s generally acknowledged that subway and bus ridership has reached peak levels compared to the last 40 or 50 years and continues to increase, therefore the productivity of transit workers is increasing.”
The 8 percent fare increase would raise $200 million annually for the cash-strapped agency, officials estimate.
In addition to raising fares, the MTA is considering shifting $120 million of uncommitted funds into the operating budget, trying to draw on future funding earlier than anticipated and limiting the free use of E-ZPasses by government agencies.
The MTA is due to present its financial plan to its board today.
The only time city transit fares rose in consecutive years was in 1980 and 1981.