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| Re: Daily News Demagogic Fare Hike Piece (537788) | |||
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Re: Daily News Demagogic Fare Hike Piece |
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Posted by Russ on Fri Dec 21 07:01:40 2007, in response to Re: Daily News Demagogic Fare Hike Piece, posted by Marc A. Rivlin on Thu Dec 20 23:53:46 2007. No, it's not a good reason. It's a political excuse. The State and the City have undersubsidized both the capital and operating budgets at the MTA over the past 14 years.This is not a 14 year old issue. Ever since the "save the nickel fare" popped up, financing for the subway has been based on crude populism rather than rational projections. What did that get us? A dramatic slow down in expansion and deferred maintenance. Paying for ops out of the farebox is not a "political excuse." It is sound management, and it is long overdue. If the subways had been run like this over the past 50 years, with capital spending from farebox-backed debt, we'd have a great system and $8.00 fares to cover $6 billion? $10 billion? a year in debt service. Did you read what was written? I've never advocated that capital spending be backed by fares, only operational spending. Also, that is the direction that Mr. Sander is going. Here's the quote again. "Sander said one reason he didn't ask Spitzer for more money to halt the fare hike was because the authority will be asking the state for billions of dollars for capital construction." If the riders were paying for all of the operational costs, but the capital costs were subsidized, fares would not be $8.00. They would not be $5.00. They would not be $3.00. Probably more like $2.50, which is not far from the $2.25 that was initially proposed. If the whole state is paying for building Interstate 86 and for maintenance and reconstruction on the LIE and the Gowanus, then the whole state should pay for more of the MTA's operating and capital expenses. End rant. You may want to research what the source for this funding is. I've got a strange feeling that Interstate 86 may receive funding from the Federal Government. Which brings us to dedicated funding sources. Roads have it. Rail needs it. This comparison is built on faulty logic, but it does illustrate why the fare increase is needed. The State of New York, which so many opposed to the fare increase want the MTA to get to fill the budget gap, is facing a $4 billion budget gap itself this coming year. Delay a fare increase until July? With projected budget deficits rising over the coming years, this is a terrible idea. |
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