MTA Board Members Asking Albany for Help
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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is proposing two fare hikes in the next 18 months that could push the base fare for bus and subway rides to $2.25, although some MTA board members called for state legislators to help the agency deal with its financial troubles and avoid the hike.
“We’re very upset. Who would want to be in our position and go and do this?” the chairman of the MTA board, Dale Hemmerdinger, said in a press conference devoted to the 13% fare increase. “Nobody wants to increase fares. We’re human beings just like you.”
When the MTA last instituted a fare hike, in March, it raised the price of a monthly unlimited MetroCard to $81 from $76. Other proposals set forth at the time included raising the base fare to $2.25 from $2 and setting rates according to off-peak and peak hours.
The final amount or scope of the fare hikes has not yet been determined, but the MTA’s 2009 preliminary budget, which was formally presented to the agency’s board yesterday, calls for an 8% increase in fare revenue beginning in July 2009, and an additional 5% increase in fare revenue starting January 2011.
The proposed July 2009 fare hike was originally scheduled for January 2010, but rising fuel costs and a significant drop in real estate tax revenues have forced the agency to push forward its schedule to help deal with a more than $900 million budget deficit, the MTA said. The proposed January 2011 fare hike was supposed to take place in January 2012.
The proposed budget also asked for more than $300 million in additional state and city funding, a measure Governor Paterson said was “understandable,” but one Mayor Bloomberg denounced, saying the city had no extra money to give the MTA.
In a contentious and crowded boardroom at the agency’s headquarters yesterday, several board members expressed displeasure with the prospect of new fare hikes, and called for legislation from Albany to help remedy the agency’s continuing financial troubles.
“I think the situation is getting to the point now where people up in Albany really need to look at what they foisted on this agency,” a vice chairman of the board, Andrew Saul, said, referring to the many functions under the MTA’s umbrella. He added that he thinks the MTA should be making more cuts to its own expenses. “There needs to be fundamental changes made in how this place operates and until you do that, you’re going to have fare increase after fare increase,” he said.
The final 2009 budget will be presented to the MTA board in November and won’t be approved before December.