MTA Watches Closely As Paterson Outlines Plan
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It was music to the MTA's ears Wednesday as Governor Paterson outlined his recommendations for the city's transit system in his first State of the State address.
"We're going to have to negotiate and eventually pass the recommendations of the Ravitch Commission, which addresses one of our central infrastructures, the MTA," said Paterson.
Those recommendations, put forward last month by a commission headed by former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch, could resolve much of the MTA's financial crisis and avert a huge fare increase being planned for this summer. MTA officials said the fact Paterson singled out the plan in his speech was an encouraging sign.
"I was delighted. The governor's been great, in terms of supporting the mta and called for the ravitch commission, and just was thrilled that he mentioned it in the state of the state," said MTA Executive Director & CEO Lee Sander.
The challenge now is winning the support of the legislature. The Ravitch recommendations include both new tolls on the East River bridges, and a new payroll tax. Assembly leaders said improvements to the plan can be made.
"There are controversial elements of it, but in the end, I think you're going to see this legislature and this governor work to provide more money to save the fares on the trains, subways and buses, to make sure we build out the capital program of the MTA, so we have a good system 10 years from now," said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester).
Without help from Albany, the MTA said it may raise the cost for a single ride as high as $3 while a monthly MetroCard could go as high as $103.
Under the Ravitch plan, the increase would be much smaller, with single rides going no higher than $2.25.
"If we have to go and institute the fare increases that the budget that we did pass calls for, we're going to be having some real tough times. We're going to force the straphangers to reach into their pocket maybe more than they can really afford to," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In order to prevent or help scale back a fare increase, the state legislature will likely have to act before March 25. That's when the MTA board meets in Manhattan to take a final vote on a fare increase, which would then go into effect in June.