Commission Offers Way to Prevent Fare Hikes, Layoffs, Service Cuts

With the economy slumping and MTA finances running on empty, New York Gov. David Paterson appointed a blue ribbon panel last June to find ways to stave off drastic fare hikes, layoffs and service
reductions. By the time the Commission on Metropolitan Transportation Authority Funding issued its report December 4, the situation had worsened and the MTA was projecting fare and toll hikes of 23 percent and deep cuts in subway, bus and commuter rail service.

The Commission’s recommendations are known unofficially as the “Ravitch Plan” after its chairman, Richard Ravitch, a former MTA Chairman who helped lead the city through the fiscal crisis in the 1970s. The recommendations promise to limit the fare and toll increases to 8 percent and prevent significant service cuts. The plan, however, is not without controversy.

“These are tough times,” Paterson said at the press conference unveiling the report. “Difficult choices are going to have to be made, by legislators, by executives, and even by the riders and the drivers
in the greater metropolitan area, with respect to the M.T.A.”

Ravitch said his plan aims to spread the pain among the various stakeholders in a strong mass transit system and avoid the downward spiral that gripped the city after draconian cuts in the 1970s.

If adopted, the plan would provide two new sources of revenues for the MTA beyond the increase in fares and tolls. One would be a new payroll tax of 1/3 of a percent on businesses in the five New York City boroughs, as well as the surrounding counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess.

The most controversial element of the plan — charging tolls on East River and Harlem River bridges — met with sharp opposition from elected officials, especially those representing poor and working class areas in the outer boroughs.

Ravitch argued that both the tax and tolls were essential for the plan’s success, and would enable the MTA to do long range capital projects without the heavy borrowing that got it in trouble in the past. Other experts say the payroll tax alone, projected to generate $1.5 billion a year, would solve the MTA’s budget gap next year and in future years would provide enough revenue to finance the authority’s capital program.

The Ravitch plan calls for the $600 million per year in new bridge tolls to be earmarked for an aggressive expansion of bus service in the city and surrounding counties.

TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint was generally positive toward the Ravitch plan, but had strong reservations about its call for a regional bus authority, noting that “Several years ago, the MTA 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. …Such a major step cannot be taken without appropriate scrutiny and without negotiations with the unions concerned. TWU will strongly and completely oppose any attempt to accomplish this through the backdoor.”

Local 100 is currently in negotiations with the MTA on a new contract covering about 35,000 members. The current agreement expires in mid-January. New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes, who was a member of the 14-person Ravitch Commission, backed Toussaint’s assertion that many aspects of a regional bus authority, such as seniority, needed to be negotiated at the bargaining table. But, he added that he hoped the union and the MTA could resolve the issues that separated them during the 2005 negotiations.

Several business leaders also expressed general support for the commission’s plan, despite the new payroll tax. Kathryn S. Wylde, the president of the Partnership for New York City, a prominent business group, said that the Ravitch plan was “fair and balanced” and that “it really does merit the support of the business community.”

The authority must pass its 2009 budget this month, and officials said they expected it to include the larger fare increase and the service cuts, with the expectation that the authority would revise the budget once a rescue plan is approved.

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, expressed broad support for the commission report, but was somewhat noncommittal on the new bridge tolls.

“The straphangers should not be called upon to bear the total burden of the M.T.A.,” Mr. Silver said. “There are more stakeholders than just the people who ride the train every day.”

Among other observations in the Ravitch report was the need for expanded bus service in the outer boroughs, which was cited again and again by riders. Many subway trains are now overcrowded with limited ways to increase capacity.

The report emphasized that the MTA’s capital spending was an economic engine for the whole region and that supporting mass transit was good public and environmental policy.

The commission also recommended creating a separate MTA Capital Finance Authority, strengthening authority governance, linking future fare increases to the cost of living and increasing transparency
and accountability.