MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-12-05 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] MTA RIPPOFF
|
The MTA wants 33 cents for every $100 of payroll in a NEW
unaccountable corporation to BORROW for the MTA... which
drives UP the operating COSTS and Bankrupts the MTA!
Is this STUPID? Yes it IS!! They will Borrow against EVERY
penny and then bankrupt the MTA again!
mlr52-at-michaellrichardson.com wrote:
> I told you the Greater New York Area needed to succeed and become the 51st State.
>
> Read this....it is MIND Boggling - the best part is the MTA wants to
> increase fares now wothout any PUBLC OVERSITE
>
>
> December 4, 2008, 11:13 am
> Ravitch Unveils M.T.A. Rescue Plan
> By Sewell Chan AND William Neuman
> Richard Ravitch presented his plan to rescue the Metropolitan
> Transportation Authority’s finances, joined by Gov. David A. Paterson,
> left, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. (Photo: Seth Wenig for The New
> York Times)
>
> Updated, 12:48 p.m. | A state commission led by Richard Ravitch, a
> former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, presented
> a wide-ranging rescue plan on Thursday for the region’s subways, buses
> and commuter railroads that includes a new “mobility tax†on corporate
> payrolls in the region; tolls on the free East River and Harlem River
> bridges; a much smaller fare and toll increase than the cash-strapped
> authority has threatened; few service reductions; and improvements in
> bus service.
> The Ravitch Report
>
> The complete proposal submitted to Gov. David A. Paterson by the
> Commission on Metropolitan Transportation Authority Financing, Dec. 4.
>
> * Read the Report [pdf]
>
> The plan — presented in a 19-page report [pdf] — would permit automatic,
> inflation-adjusted fare and toll increases every two years without
> public hearings, ending what Mr. Ravitch called a cyclical “political
> circus.†The plan would allow for a state takeover of the city-owned
> Harlem River and East River bridges, which have historically been free
> to drivers. The new tolls would be collected electronically, without
> toll booths.
>
> The regional mobility tax — 33 cents on every $100 of payroll — would
> provide $1.5 billion a year, and the tolls would produce $600 million in
> net revenue a year ($1 billion a year in gross revenue minus expenses),
> Mr. Ravitch said. The new revenue streams would help finance borrowing
> for a $30 billion-to-$35 billion M.T.A. capital plan for 2010 to 2014
> that would help stimulate the economy while maintaining vital
> infrastructure.
>
> “This is a major stimulus bill to New York State,†Mr. Ravitch said at a
> morning news conference at the governor’s office in Midtown Manhattan.
> “The number of projects being canceled and terminated as a result of
> inadequate financing,†he said, is “adding enormously to all the other
> problems this financial crisis has imposed on everybody.â€
>
> Gov. David A. Paterson and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg joined Mr. Ravitch
> for the announcement, and broadly endorsed his recommendations. Their
> support means that the plan now lies in the hands of the State
> Legislature, where support is far from certain.
>
> “This is open to negotiation,†Mr. Paterson said, while adding: “We’re
> going to need to both houses of the Legislature to cooperate with us.
> But I must reiterate to everyone here, these are tough times, and
> difficult choices will have to be made — by legislators, by executives,
> and even by the riders and rivers in the greater metropolitan area, with
> respect to the M.T.A.â€
>
> Moving to curtail possible legislative resistance, Mr. Ravitch said that
> his commission’s recommendations came as a whole.
>
> “This all fits together,†he said. “This is not a series of separable
> recommendations. This is an effort to spread the burden amongst the
> largest group that one possibly can.â€
>
> In April, Mr. Paterson asked Mr. Ravitch — who was widely credited with
> rescuing the transit system in the early 1980s — to lead the commission.
> Its 13 members were appointed in June. The commission held seven full
> meetings from June to November and three public hearings. The news
> conference today was held one day in advance of its Dec. 5 deadline for
> presenting its report.
>
> Mr. Ravitch said the authority’s fiscal problems were of an “enormity
> that no one was able to predict†even back in April.
>
> “The enormity of the operating deficit of the M.T.A. would require a
> draconian fare increase and draconian service cuts this year,†he said,
> adding that those cuts would be “ill-afforded.†He said that riders had
> to pay “their fair share,†but that “the growth and prosperity of this
> city needs above all a healthy and growing and vibrant transportation
> system.â€
>
> Mr. Ravitch warned that there was currently “not one hard dollar†for
> the M.T.A.’s next five-year capital plan, which is to extend from 2010
> and 2014 and could cost as much as $14 billion.
>
> He called for “a regular, recurring revenue stream that is
> inflation-sensitive, that will reflect that an improved transportation
> system will increase riders, add immeasurably to the prosperity of the
> region.†In contrast, he said, since 2004, “no new resources … only
> existing M.T.A. operating revenues†were used to pay for capital
> expenses.
>
> The plan would create a new Capital Finance Authority and be the
> repository for the new payroll tax and the revenue from the new tolls.
> “In Year 1, the proceeds of the tax will be utilized to defray a large
> part of the fare increase and a large part of the service cuts,†Mr.
> Ravitch said of the new “mobility tax.â€
>
> Mr. Ravitch said that the “inadequacy†of bus service was a constant
> theme encountered by the commission and that expanding express-bus
> service into and out of Manhattan for commuters was a priority.
>
> He urged the creation of a Regional Bus Authority, within the M.T.A.,
> that would “expand and rationalize bus service†and create new Bus Rapid
> Transit routes. “There are enormous efficiencies to be realized,†he
> said. “The growth of bus service has been quite extraordinary.â€
>
> Finally, the commission urged the M.T.A. to be more transparent in the
> development of its next five-year capital plan and to improve its
> management of big construction projects.
>
> Mr. Paterson said, “Obviously it’s clear from the chairman’s
> presentation how important the functioning of our mass transit system
> has to be in this particular region.â€
>
> To cut service and impose a 23 percent fare and toll increase — as the
> M.T.A. has said it will have to do without a new source of revenue —
> would be to “go right back†to the parlous conditions of the transit
> system in the 1960s and 1970s and create a “debt economy,†the governor
> warned.
>
> Mayor Bloomberg, stepping up to the lectern, joked: “I could have gone
> to the Giants game. It’s probably safer here at the moment.â€
>
> “I don’t think you could have put a study in more capable hands than
> Dick Ravitch,†the mayor said. “This is as guy who understands the city,
> he understands the M.T.A., he understands all the pieces.â€
>
> The mass transit system was key to the “greener, greater New Yorkâ€
> envisioned in his administration’s PlaNYC 2030 plan for environmental
> sustainability.
>
> Mr. Bloomberg noted that his 2007 congestion-pricing proposal — which
> would have charged most drivers $8 a day to enter Manhattan south of
> 60th Street — died at the hands of the State Legislature.
>
> “The Legislature stated at that time that they could find other
> solutions to the M.T.A.’s longstanding fiscal imbalances, and I’m
> pleased to say that the Ravitch Commission today is offering them more
> information and options,†Mr. Bloomberg said.
>
> Mr. Bloomberg at one point reacted angrily when a reporter asked whether
> the city had done enough to to promote its congestion pricing plan,
> which would have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for mass
> transit.
>
> “This should not be about personalities,†he added. “This is about the
> greater good of everybody.â€
>
> Asked to predict how the Legislature would act, Mr. Ravitch sounded the
> only note of uncertainty of the entire news conference.
>
> “I’d be kidding you if I said I could predict the outcome,†he said.
> “But I do know that under the kind of leadership that the city and the
> state have, there will be a good outcome for the people who use the
> transportation system.â€
>
> Even before the news conference ended, environmental, transportation and
> labor advocates issued statements endorsing the Ravitch plan.
>
> “Mass transit is the No. 1 sustainability issue facing the New York
> metropolitan region, but there is a chasm between the needs of our mass
> transit system and its current funding,†said Marcia Bystryn, president
> of the New York League of Conservation Voters. “Our economy and
> environment will quickly deteriorate without a robust, properly funded
> transit system. The Ravitch Commission recognizes the gravity of this
> situation, and we hope our partners in government will as well.â€
>
> Gene Russianoff, lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign of the New York
> Public Interest Research Group, praised the report’s financing
> recommendations. In a statement, Mr. Russianoff largely praised the
> report, but raised two concerns:
>
> A proposed regional bus authority will need to come with safeguards to
> prevent harmful cuts made in the name of eliminating “duplicativeâ€
> service. Previous proposals in Albany have contained moratoriums on
> cuts. Labor unions representing transit workers have understandable
> worries about how their members would fare under a regional bus
> authority.
>
> We also question the proposal for regular biennial fare increases. The
> Straphangers Campaign is concerned that an automatic funding source will
> discourage efficiencies, promote waste and be unnecessary given future
> possible finances of the M.T.A.
>
> William K. Guild, chairman of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee
> to the M.T.A., said in a statement:
>
> Riders already bear an exceptionally large proportion of the cost of
> operating the M.T.A. system through their fares, compared with riders of
> other large transit systems nationally, and they should not be forced to
> shoulder an ever larger share of this burden. As riders’ fares do not
> cover even the cost of operating the system, the cost of capital
> improvements must be shared among the other beneficiaries of the system.
> We urge our elected officials to promptly consider the Ravitch
> Commission recommendations and to enact adequate means of funding the
> M.T.A.’s operating and capital needs.
>
> Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union,
> which represents employees at New York City Transit, the M.T.A.’s
> largest division, offered a measured statement that raised concerns
> about the report’s bus proposals:
>
> While we have not yet seen the Ravitch report, some of its reported
> elements are worthy of consideration.
>
> On the other hand, we understand that it also contains recommendations
> regarding the establishment of a regional bus company. Several years
> ago, the M.T.A. attempted without success to gain regional bus
> legislation through the New York State legislature and through labor
> negotiations. Since then there have been no negotiations. Nor have we
> been consulted with or informed of this element of the report before
> today.
>
> Such a major step cannot be taken without appropriate scrutiny and
> without negotiations with the unions concerned. T.W.U. will strongly and
> completely oppose any attempt to accomplish this through the back door.
>
> Opposition to the proposal for tolls on the four free East River bridges
> — the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro spans — quickly
> emerged too.
>
> City Councilman Bill de Blasio, a Brooklyn Democrat, praised the Ravitch
> Commission for its efforts but said he was “deeply concerned†about the
> toll proposal. An alternative, he said, might be a free on vehicle
> registrations, as the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr., has
> urged.
>
> “It is just bad public policy to ask people who live and work in the
> outer boroughs to fill our budget gaps, regardless of their financial
> ability to do so,†Mr. de Blasio said. †I strongly urge the commission,
> Governor Paterson, and Mayor Bloomberg to consider other interesting
> proposals, such as a progressive commuter tax or Comptroller Thompson’s
> car registration proposal, which would raise adequate revenue without
> unduly burdening New York’s outer boroughs.â€
>
> Councilman John C. Liu, chairman of the City Council’s Transportation
> Committee, proposed a higher payroll tax in exchange for no bridge
> tolls. He said in a statement:
>
> The fiscal situation is no doubt dire at the M.T.A. and with city and
> state governments. The Ravitch Commission has succeeded in blunting the
> harm to our mass transit system and its riders. The proposed payroll tax
> is a bitter pill but among the lesser of necessary evils in that the
> burden is spread widely and as sparingly as possible.
>
> In contrast, tolling the East River Bridges imposes too large a burden
> on a relatively small part of the populace who have fewer choices in the
> first place. These tolls are also highly inefficient as, according to
> published reports, $1 billion in tolls would need to be collected to
> achieve net revenue of $600 million. These tolls are also highly
> divisive and carry too much emotional baggage.
>
> Rather than tolling, the proposed payroll tax should be set at 0.46
> percent instead of 0.33 percent to achieve the same target revenue.
>
> Councilman Simcha Felder, Democrat of Brooklyn, said in a statement:
>
> Many low and middle income residents in the outer boroughs live in areas
> that are underserved by public transit. To have them disproportionately
> carry the burden of rescuing the M.T.A. is unfair. How can you tax
> people to enter Manhattan when you don’t provide them reasonable
> alternatives? We need to find a way to distribute the responsibility of
> bridging the M.T.A. budget gaps fairly and evenly.
>
> A copy of the Ravitch report is below:
>
>
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