A developing coalition of advocates, including Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen, local and state politicians and other union leaders, participated in a rally held in the Broad street station on New York City's M subway line during the morning rush hour in lower Manhattan on Feb. 4. City Council President Christine Quinn, leaders in the State Legislature, and Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, called for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to use available federal stimulus dollars to fund operating expenses, reversing planned service cuts and enabling the continuation of the free fare program for schoolchildren.

Samuelsen noted that, over the last several years, the MTA has diverted $1.3 billion from its operating budget into capital expenditures – “mega‐projects” like the #7 line extension, and the Second Avenue subway. Rather than call for the abandonment of the capital projects, Samuelsen and other transit leaders are counseling fiscal prudence at a time when service cuts are decimating train and bus service for working New Yorkers who depend on them to get to work and others who need them to find jobs. They pointed out that many other major American cities are using available federal stimulus money to fund operating expenses in part – leaving the MTA conspicuous for its refusal to do this.

“We need the [money] flow to go in the other direction now,” Samuelsen said. “But the MTA refuses to consider this and other achievable options to avert today’s operating budget crisis….Apply the $90 million in stimulus money available to you right now – today – as a first step to close the budget gap.”

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn added: “We have, this morning, a simple message for the MTA. We fully recognize that we are in tough budget times. But there is an immediate solution, and it is within the power of the MTA Board: take a portion of the stimulus funds and use that to fund the operating budget. Federal law explicitly provides for this.”

Budget cuts proposed by the MTA would force the shut‐down of two subway lines, running of fewer trains on another seven lines, the elimination of 21 bus lines, and the ending of the student Metro-card program. The Union and advocates say that the cuts will adversely affect four million riders. It would also mean layoffs for between 500 and 1,000 transit workers.

Councilman James Vacca, Chair of the Transportation Committee, was blunt in his assessment:
“Straphangers face an abyss – a mass transit system on the verge of no longer serving the masses. The hole the MTA finds itself in is growing deeper by the day,” he said, referring to today’s reports of greater budget shortfalls caused by lower projections of payroll tax revenues. “We at the Council stand ready to address these issues.”

District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts, who represents 125,000 municipal workers covering virtually every City agency, called for “a full blown investigation into MTA finances,” echoing a just‐released Inspector General report that found widespread use of contractors who had defaulted on other projects. “We’re tired of hearing that we don’t have the money,” she added. “Stimulus funds should be used to cover operating expenses.

Straphangers Campaign Senior Attorney Gene Russianoff said he was urging the U.S. Congress to make additional transit funding available as part of a jobs bill now being considered on Capitol Hill. U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has urged a $15 billion appropriation for transit. “I am an M train rider,” Russianoff said, “and if the plan goes forward, 16 trains that run during rush hour would cease to exist.”

"Maintaining subway and bus service is critical to ensuring the sustainability of New York now and in the future," said Rich Kassel, Senior Attorney and transportation expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental organization. "If we are serious about cutting pollution and reducing congestion in the city, we should be improving transit service, not cutting it. Other cities have used federal stimulus funds to maintain transit service, and the MTA should follow their lead.”

TWU Local 100 has invited MTA Chairman Jay Walder to accompany the Union on a trip to Washington, DC, to lobby for funds to be included for mass transit within the Obama Administration’s pending jobs bill, which could result in an infusion of $210 million to bus service, subway service and to save jobs. This legislation may be New York City’s last chance for additional federal funding for mass transit, as the federal transit reauthorization legislation, which sunsetted last year, is not scheduled to be taken up by Congress in 2010.