The Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted yesterday to hold public hearings on a series of service cuts and fare hikes that include raising the price of discount MetroCards by as much as $6.

The MTA is under pressure to close a $436 million budget gap even after a 50-cent bus and subway fare hike last year pushed prices up to $2 a ride.

Under a preliminary budget for 2005 released yesterday at an MTA board meeting, the unlimited monthly MetroCard would cost $76, up from $70. The seven-day pass would increase to $24 from $21.

Bridge and tunnel tolls would climb 25 cents and 50 cents under the proposal, and the MTA is seeking to add a $1 monthly account fee for E-ZPass customers.

Fares on Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road would rise 5%.

At the same time, the MTA wants to push through a number of service cuts across the system, including reducing off-peak bus service, shutting down as many as 164 part- and full-time toll booths, and reducing cleaning and maintenance of commuter lines.

“We think we’ve achieved a good balance,” the MTA chairman, Peter Kalikow, said after the meeting. “But that’s what the public hearings are going to tell us and what we presented today is by no means the definitive documents,” he said.

The changes would go into effect early next year. At least 2,680 MTA employees will lose their jobs as a result of the cutbacks.

Hearings will be held in mid-September or October. This is the first year the MTA has issued a preliminary budget to the public as part of its effort to increase transparency. The board will adopt a final budget in December.

If the full budget proposal passes the MTA will be looking at a $31 million surplus in 2005.The MTA said $219 million in revenue would come from fare and toll increases and another $91 million from service cuts. The rest would come from administrative cost savings.

Straphanger representatives, union members, and elected officials were outraged the MTA would consider another hike so soon after the last and said that riders depend on the discounts.

More than 80% of transit riders use discount cards, putting the average cost at $1.26 a ride, which is less than what the MTA had been counting on when it raised fares last year. The MTA was banking on an average of $1.30 a ride to help balance the books.

Three of Mayor Bloomberg’s MTA board members voted against holding public hearings on the package of proposals, arguing that there were still other alternatives to explore.

“We want staff to do more work and try to come back with alternatives away from fare increases,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a separate briefing. “I don’t know why we should be in this situation.”

Meanwhile, straphangers and union members blamed Governor Pataki and the mayor for the MTA’s troubles, accusing the state and city of under funding the transit system.

“The city and state have shirked their responsibility of providing funds to the MTA,” the executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Council, Beverly Dolinsky, told the board. “Being packed in like sardines sends a very bad message,” she said.

Mr. Kalikow said the state gave the MTA about $1.9 billion a year and the city gives the authority another $400 million a year. “I take offense to that,” Mr. Kalikow told reporters yesterday. “Anybody who says that mayor and the governor are not doing a huge amount to support this system is just not being truthful.”

Mr. Kalikow said he would continue to lobby the state and city governments for more money. The MTA is still facing a $1.3 billion budget deficit in 2006 and the board voted to adopt environmental reviews to look for additional savings next year. Also yesterday, the MTA presented a $21 billion five-year capital plan to improve and maintain transit equipment and expand the system.

The plan includes funding for the Second Avenue subway line, west side extension of the no.7 line, and access to Grand Central Terminal for Long Island Railroad customers, all three of which depend on federal funds.

The capital plan also includes money for a rail link from Lower Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport. MTA officials said they would need $1 billion for new security, which they hope to get from the federal government.

Board members and straphangers agreed that the capital funds were needed to maintain the quality and safety of the transit system.