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With the fate of the MTA up in the air—sure, the agency did pass the "doomsday" fare hikes and service cuts, but the State Legislature still has the opportunity to provide a bailout—there's another try for a rescue plan that will appeal to enough State Senators to break the stalemate. According to the Post, "Gov. Paterson is again on board with a plan that would toll 13 now-free East and Harlem River bridges at the cost of a subway ride for all drivers -- but the latest twist would exempt those crossing the spans for business or medical purposes.... [There would also] be 5 to 10 percent tax increase on all non-city residents who use long-term garage parking spaces in Manhattan and a 50-cent "dropoff" surcharge on every taxi ride." Richard Ravitch, author of the first plan that included bridge tolls, supports this revision, telling the Daily News, "The modification is intended to deal with what many people thought were the most legitimate objections to tolls." However, Senators are kinda meh to outraged about the amended fees—Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) said, "It just fundamentally wrong. It is anti business. It is anti small business." So, do we get ready for fare hike number 2?
The Latest Revised MTA Bailout Proposal
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not exactly NY news, but it's one more reason to hate hamas terrorists and the fascists in their mid
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this is anti-small business but the huge fare increases aren't anti-small business employees? plenty of crossings between boroughs are already tolled and at higher rates.
raise the fares. If the public has to pay dramatically more to ride mass transit, perhaps they'll stand up and actually expect more from the system rather than the constantly bailing out this ridiculous agency at everyone's expense. I also think the labor unions need to come to the table and take a little pain here as well instead of the riding public which on the whole make a whole lot less than these people do.
Pay dramatically more? No thank you! The service sucks and is getting worse and no amount of complaining will change that because the MTA is not beholding to its riders. It doesn't give two craps about its riders as it proves every day of the week. No, I want an affordable fare somewhat commensurate with the abysmal service.
Charge the cars & trucks tolls, whether or not they're here for business. Most subway riders are paying because they need to ride to work, people in vehicles shouldn't be any different.
This is the most insane idea they've come up with. How the f&%k are they going to determine whether someone is traveling on business or not? They can't.
The fare has to go up once in awhile just like everything else in the world, and people need to accept that. Riders will adapt, and they'll get over it. What cannot easily be rectified are service cuts, which will drastically impact many people's travel, work and leisure habits, which combined can only further damage the economy.
The fact that the conversation is focused on eliminating the fare hike rather than the service cuts is further proof that there is no desire to actually help anyone occurring in Albany.
What will happen 2 years from now when the new bridge tolls and employer taxes aren't enough? The MTA needs to cut the corruption out and the italian contractors out.
What strikes me is the lack of options in the proposals. What about taxing the bridges during certain hours of the day? Adding a charge to cabs plus then taxing the East River bridges is a large chunk of change for anyone who lives in Brooklyn or Queens and needs to take a taxi home for any reason.