The subway, bus, and commuter train systems in NYC all fall under the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The very same MTA is projecting a 2009 budget shortfall of $1.2 billion. Unless other revenue sources are found, major service cuts and 50% fare increases are planned.

Our pathetic excuse for a mayor, Michael Bloomberg has offered nothing of any constructive value to deal with the crisis. If it doesn't involve massive government handouts to his extremely wealthy friends, Bloomberg isn't interested. New York City desperately needs leadership on a transportation crisis that will create greater economic inequality and increase CO2 emissions.

Comptroller William Thompson actually is offering a possible solution, showing leadership that hizdizzzoner won't. From AM NY 11/23/08:

To help fill the transit agency’s expected $1.2 billion deficit next year, Comptroller William Thompson proposed yesterday creating a new vehicle registration fee to generate about $365 million in new funds for the MTA.

...

“Instead of asking subway and bus riders who can least afford it to dig deeper into emptier pockets for less service, we need imaginative ideas that will ensure that those who benefit from a healthy transit system pay their fair share,” Thompson said at a news conference outside Grand Central Terminal.

Thompson, who is running for mayor, proposed adding a weight-based vehicle registration fee that would raise $100 per vehicle weighing 2,300 pounds or less plus nine cents for every extra pound.

...

The annual fee would also be an incentive for people to buy smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and could be coupled with a parking-zone regulation that only allows city-registered vehicles to park overnight, he said.

The comptroller’s office said a similar transit-funding registration fee exists in Seattle. Transit advocates commended the plan and urged the Ravitch Commission and lawmakers to approve it.

It turns out that NYC does less than the rest of the country to encourage people to fight Global Warming by taking public transportation.

“The share that riders pay of the transit’s systems cost is going to go up from 69 percent which is the highest by far in the nation already to 83 percent, putting a hard burden on the riding public,” said Straphangers Campaign staff attorney Gene Russianoff.

Another idea being proposed by New York City Council Members Eric Gioia and David Yassky is for the MTA to move out of its pricey offices in Manhattan to less expensive real estate. The MTA could then rent out their Manhattan building and make money to be used to pay for mass transit.

Bloomberg is showing the lack of leadership and interest in public affairs of a typical lame duck, even though he has faced massive public condemnation for strong arming the violation of voter passed term limits through the City Council. The Mayor's office has been an expensive toy for Michael Bloomberg, one he has been willing to pay tens of millions of dollars to purchase the past two "elections."

Those of us who live in NYC are paying the real price.

Photo: Annie Mole

 

There is a tendancy among some people to think that New York Republicans are somehow better than Republicans elsewhere, but that certainly isn’t the case when it comes to blatant political corruption.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority runs the New York Subway, the Metro North Railway, the Staten Island Railroad, and the Long Island Railroad. The board is appointed by the Governor and the Mayor, both Republicans.

The MTA is getting famous for corrupt bidding processes. When they recently offered property in Manhattan for sale, they chose the bid of the New York Jets, even though there were two higher bidders.

Now, it has been announced that the MTA has chosen to sell its Brooklyn railyard property to Brooklyn arch-enemy Bruce Ratner at less than half of the appraised market value, and the appraisal was done by the MTA. The land will be part of a massive arena/real estate project that will destroy much of the Prospect Heights neighborhood and will get an additional taxpayer subsidy thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, who never met a corporate welfare project he didn’t like.

It gets worse. An arbitrator ruled that the MTA must stop with its extremely dangerous conductorless trains on the L line because the dangerous trains violate the MTA’s contract with the transit union. What does the MTA do? They are simply ingoring the ruling. The MTA is desperate to cut jobs so they can give away more money to GOP corporate cronies. Safety just doesn’t matter to them.

The corruption at the MTA, whose board is appointed entirely by a Republican governor and a Republican mayor is typical of the corruption that permeates the GOP. Whether it is Dick Cheney and Halliburton, Tom DeLay’s campaign dealings, Duke Cunnhingham’s ethics problems, or the Diebold ballot “discrepancies,” the GOP’s lack of ethics is utterly amazing. For a party that moralizes at queers, women, and non-Christians with glee, the Republican Party needs to learn some real moral values.