CITYWIDE

MTA TO RESTRUCTURE ITS $20 BILLION DEBT

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will issue $350 million worth of bonds today in an attempt to reduce the amount of principal it will pay to service its $20.85 billion of outstanding debt. Tomorrow’s sale of Dedicated Tax Fund bonds will not increase the overall debt burden of the MTA because the bonds are being used to refinance $350 million in debt at a lower interest rate, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, Scott Trommer, said. The bond sale will reduce the MTA’s principal by $3 million annually through 2035.This year, the MTA expects to pay a total of $1.25 billion in principal, which will increase to $1.6 billion by 2008. Fitch gave the bonds an A+ rating, the second highest, based on the diversity and strength of the tax sources used to pay bondholders.

Bondholders will have first call on revenue from, among other sources, motor vehicle registration, fuel, and corporate franchise taxes. This is the first time the MTA has restructured its debt to take advantage of lower interest rates since it did so with $13 billion of debt in 2002. Lack of state funding in recent years has led the MTA to issue ever-increasing amounts of debt. Sixty cents of every dollar in MTA revenue now goes toward paying the authority’s $20.85 billion deficit.

– Special to the Sun

CITY BUYS OUT ANOTHER BUS COMPANY

Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city had reached a tentative agreement to buy out another private bus company and turn its control over to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The deal with New York Bus Service, which serves 10,000 commuters in the Bronx, is the third agreement of seven that the city must hammer out. The MTA will begin taking over the new routes once the deal closes in late summer.

The city expects to reach a deal with the four remaining private bus lines by April 30. The seven companies serve about 400,000 daily riders over 82 routes in the outer boroughs. In January, workers at two of the companies went on strike, leaving commuters in Brooklyn and Queens without adequate transportation.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

BUDGET TALKS WEIGHED DOWN BY HEALTH CARE

The fight over funding the state health-care system weighed down budget talks yesterday, dimming hopes of passing the first on-time spending plan in 20 years.

“These are all heavy-duty issues,” said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, acknowledging that health care is the largest barrier to reaching a budget deal.

Concerns yesterday over rising Medicaid costs, hospital taxes, and the adoption of a preferred drug-coverage list kept the health care battle raging on several fronts. Also confronting lawmakers is renewal of the Health Care Reform Act, a $4.4 billion program that subsidizes hospitals and pays for the health coverage of poor New Yorkers. The current HCRA program expires June 30.

– Associated Press

TRI-STATE

FOUR CHILDREN KILLED IN HOUSE FIRE

TEANECK, N.J. – Hours after firefighters responding to a report of smoke could find nothing wrong, a house erupted in flames early yesterday morning, killing four children and critically injuring their mother.

Two other children were rescued by a neighbor who propped a ladder against the burning home. The dead children were Ari Seidenfeld, 15; his brothers, Noah, 6; and Natan, 4, and a 5-year-old sister, Adira, said police Lieutenant Norman Levine.

Fire Chief John Bauer said the fire department got a call from the house yesterday at 8:30 p.m., reporting smoke in the basement of three-story brick Tudor.

“On our arrival, there was no smoke,” he said. “We spent over a half-hour checking the house. We couldn’t find anything wrong with the house. We checked all the electrical devices.”

Five hours later, the family’s nanny, Betty Mbaza, 37, was asleep on a couch on the first floor when she awoke to heavy smoke, Mr. Levine said. Ms. Mbaza called 911 on her cell phone. That call was received at 1:43 a.m., followed almost immediately by three other 911 calls from neighbors frantically reporting the fire.

– Associated Press

NOT YOUR GARDEN-VARIETY CRIMINAL

NORTH BERGEN, N.J. – The “Zucchini Bandit,” a mugger with an unusual choice of weapon, is no longer a threat to society, or vegetables. In fact, the “Zucchini Bandit” is being kicked out of the Garden State and will soon be deported from America, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division.

Fulton Guevara-Zambrano got his nickname after a 1996 robbery at gunpoint, in which he threatened to shoot his victim while stealing $20 and the man’s wristwatch. When police caught him, it was discovered that the weapon he was wielding was actually a harmless zucchini.

Yesterday morning at his home at North Bergen, N.J., Guevara-Zambrano was again arrested without incident on administrative charges as a deportable criminal alien and has been placed in removal proceedings, officials said. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Guevara-Zambrano has six felony convictions, and was recently sentenced to 18 years to life for attempted robbery. He has been a priority target of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division since his release from jail in 2002. Yesterday’s arrest was made during an operation of the U.S. Marshal’s New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force.

– Special to the Sun