MTA Critics Given Chance to Complain

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The New York Sun

New Yorkers love to complain about the MTA, and with fare hikes on the horizon we’re complaining more than ever. Starting today, the state Assembly will be listening.


The chairman of the Transportation Committee, Richard Brodsky, a Democrat of Westchester, is holding legislative hearings in all five boroughs, Westchester, and Long Island, beginning today at 10:30 a.m. in Staten Island. The hearings are open to the public, but only invited speakers may testify.


“The MTA process has historically been secret and private,” Mr. Brodsky said. “The first goal is to get a very broad public understanding of what’s at stake here.”


Mr. Brodsky’s complaint recalled the last fare hike, in May 2003, when seemingly every official from State Comptroller Hevesi on down called for a look at the authority’s books to see if the fare increase was genuinely needed. The MTA stonewalled for weeks behind antiquated rules and procedures.


This time, authority officials desperately want funds from Albany to enact its $22.7 billion capital plan. In what the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, calls a “Cadillac Capital Plan,” the MTA promises to build a Second Avenue subway line, extend the no. 7 train to Penn Station, and bring its work refurbishing all the subway stations and bus stops nearly to completion.


Today’s testimony – at the Seaview Hospital Home, where Community Board 2 meets – will focus on the capital and operating plans that the MTA board sent last Wednesday to Albany, where they await legislative approval.


The speakers are to include the MTA chairman, Peter Kalikow, and an attorney for the Straphanger’s Campaign, Gene Russianoff. Representatives from the mayor’s office and transit workers’ unions have also been invited.


The Assembly is mulling over how much, if any, money the state should contribute to the 2004-09 capital plan. The 2000-04 capital plan was financed entirely by the MTA, which refinanced old debt and issued new bonds. According to the MTA’s chief financial officer, Steven Kessler, the authority cannot finance the new plan through bonds, lest it be crippled by debt and be forced to roll back services drastically.


In the 1980s and 1990s, state government helped pay for the capital improvements that pulled the transit system out of the decrepitude it had sunk to in the 1970s. But in 2000 Governor Pataki decided not to chip in any money, according to Mr. Kessler.


Mr. Brodsky said: “You’d have to have your head fairly deeply in the sand not to know how crucial transportation is to the economy of the city, and therefore the economy of the state. This is not a gift, it’s an investment.”


The next hearing, in Queens, is scheduled for October 13. The MTA’s executive director, Katherine Lapp, is expected to speak. The Brooklyn hearing is scheduled for October 18, and the Nassau County hearing for October 21. Hearings for Manhattan, the northern suburbs, and the Bronx have yet to be scheduled.


The New York Sun

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