Worse Than Doomsday: MTA's Newest Monetary Woes

We'll be paying $3 in another year or two.

Now they're whining about tax revenues? Get in line. This year, as a freelancer, I started having to pay a brand new tax to help get the MTA out of their budget mess (its called the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax and it's killing a lot of small businesses and freelancers like me in NYC) - then I noticed an MTA tax on my cell phone bills. Irony of all is that as someone who works from home - I don't commute...

How about reworking the lavish MTA pensions doled out to something more in line with pensions of average working Americans?

It's partly the MTA's fault of course (the union is a big problem, as is the way agency is managed), but it's mostly the fault of Albany: http://secondavenuesagas.com/2010/02/04/brother-can-you-spare-eight-billion-dimes/

This reflexive blaming of the MTA doesn't help anyone.

They're all crooks just trying to find new ways to squeeze money from us.

State. City. MTA.

don't discount the fact that the problems are created in large part because of smaller crooks. Every jacked up paycheck with fake overtime; lifetime pensions and benefits that permit marginal employees to earn more in retirement than they ever did while working; an employment system set up to insulate employees from blame or accountability; every corrupt contract provided to the connected or to businesses that are supposedly minority owned all help create the bloat that seems impossible to combat.

Agreed eastbwayanglo. I too would prefer a fare hike proportional to service enhancements instead of service cuts and to getting the damn 2nd Ave Subway done, even if it'll only go to 96th Street.

Everyone is acting irrationally. I'd like to see an independent auditor take a look at the MTA's books, perhaps with subpoena powers.

I'd also like to see Chuck Scarborough dedicate his 7PM newscast one night to a documentary focusing on the MTA's ongoing financial problems.

They definitely need to get audited. But if they get fined, wouldn't that mean an increase in fares, or services cuts so they can pay for it?

As long as that documentary rightfully points to state legislators as the primary cause of all these problems.

great ideas, but NY and the MTA has something called unions which don't give a damn about making some shared sacrifice for the good of the cit (or even their own individual jobs in the long run), this, and poor management, is why the state and it's authorities will eventually go bust.

agreed-- and when we eventually try to escape the unsustainable pension/benefit obligations created, whether through bargaining or bankruptcy, it won't be pretty. How can we afford a system that allows people to work 20-25 years and get half pay (or more) plus healthcare for the next 40? We have a system that permits many public employees to retire in their 40s while the private sector works until 65 (or longer), most with a promise of nothing except for what they managed to put aside while working.

How is it that we have bad teachers who get paid to do nothing, or MTA workers who get a full days wage for a half day of work... All of us in the private sector are working for the public sector, and not the other way around. Public servants- what a joke.

Yes. Congestion pricing please

More money is not the solution. The MTA needs better management and using the money they take in USEFUL.

Congestion pricing.

East River bridge tolls.

Creating new taxes to gift the MTA more money doesn't solve a thing. It just encourages everyone involved to keep doing what they do best- waste money. How about instead of raising taxes on everyone (which is what congestion pricing will be, same as that new payroll tax they passed to pretend we weren't getting a bigger fare increase last time around), they try cutting, or at least controlling, expenses for a change?

Instead of hiding fare increases through different tax schemes, it would be a lot more honest and efficient to simply raise fares. That would create a REAL incentive to try to be efficient, since the politics of a fare increase would come into play.

Hear, hear. Congestion pricing and East River tolls all the way. Heck, I'll even grab my tools and help build it.

We absolutely need this.

Preach on there

Of course Albany will never let it happen even if King Bloomberg starts to push it again

all that aside

It is a complete no-brainer at this point and the only reason it doesn't exist is because of politician corruption.

Poor democracy

Common Sense got completely lost because of the fault of human nature when it is given power.

Throughout all of these cuts, has the union had to make any sacrifices? Do they even plan on getting paid less for working less once the service cuts go into effect?

This is hardly all on the union, but I just wonder if these systemic failures take into account sacrifices that need to be made on all sides.

Also, what happened to state politicians threatening to open the books on the MTA? There's no way in hell they know how to manage their finances or budget properly, but I guess hearing threats from politicians that work for a state that also doesn't know how to budget or manage its finances wouldn't get us too far.

This is all majorly F'd.

I really wish they would stop using the melodramatic armageddon language. It makes it sound like these are one-time problems rather than systemic issues, and seems to minimize their responsibility to not only fix major budget issues on "doomsday" but provide effective transit all the time, which the livelihoods of six million people depend on.

Fuck the 2nd Ave line. Clearly we can't afford it. If the MTA can't afford to keep trains running on the lines they already have, how are they supposed to fund a new one? The new line isn't going to increase ridership.

Sorry, pal, but you're too late -- the hole has already been dug. At this point, it doesn't make sense to turn back now.

The Second Avenue line is paid for out of the capital budget. That money cannot be legally used for operating expenses.

Please explain that to Quinn who states there is a provision to permit "under extraordinary times" to do so. Hey, she did extend her term,which she shouldn't have been able to, under these same "extraordinary times"

How about pay cuts across the board? If you don't like it go find another job.

How about top executives taking $1 salaries for the shitpile mess they put us into?

How about more advertising? (I'm not fan, but it's revenue!)

How about stricter overtime regulations and accountability for and fudging?

How about hiring more employees with a better work ethic and common sense?

Why do we have to get shafted for decades of mismanagement?

This sounds a lot like our financial crisis but everyone is so uppity and vocal about 'Fat Cats on Wall St.' and no one gives a fuck about the 'Fat Rats of the MTA'.

I don't disagree with any of your suggestions, but, to put it more clearly:

How about getting rid of the TWU?

i was planning on writing the same thing but decided to read the comments first. F the twu. bust that union up toot sweet. why again do station attendants make more tha $7.25 and hour? their job is far less involved than flipping burgers or shoveling shit. and they are all douches to the customers to boot. yeah yeah yeah, they have to deal with assholes. poor babies, they're behind bullet proof glass.

"How about top executives taking $1 salaries for the shitpile mess they put us into?"

The people who got us into this mess are long gone.

I would be willing to pay $150 a month for my metrocard, provided service wasn't so shitty. It would actually save me a lot of money to be able to avoid cabbing it home when I have to work late.

When it takes a fucking hour and a half to get from work (in Morningside Heights) to home in lower manhattan at 9pm on standing-room only trains that take 20 minutes to arrive, the $25 cab fare doesn't seem too bad.

(I realize that there are people whose economics don't work the same as mine, but this is my $.02)

Barring nasty weather, commuting by bicycle up to Morningside Heights from anywhere in Manhattan is possibly one of the easiest and most pleasant routes in the city. The west side bike path along the Hudson is car free and worry free. If you're capable and haven't already, give it a try.

I wish I was still able to do that....

I used to ride from Ft. Greene, Brooklyn until last April when I got clipped by a driver making a no signal left hand swerve-turn across my lane in an intersection. Now I have titanium in my femur and lower leg, along with a bad knee from the surgery.

Really sorry to hear that, that's a bike commuting nightmare. Any chance you'll heal up 100% or close?

well, I'm hoping to ride again this spring, but the cold weather sucks for a bum leg... I use an exercise bike at physical therapy and that seems ok.

I rode my dad's bmw motorcycle around over christmas down south and that was a blast... too bad a cab would murder me in 10 seconds on that thing here.

Quinn is so self-serving. ON NY1, she demanded that MTA redirect federal stimulus money for capital expense to cover their operating expense. This is not a solution but a temporary band aid and our infrastructure in in DIRE need of UPKEEP. Perhaps Quinn should ask MTA if they have their own slush funds to cover the budget gap.

+1, redirecting capital spending to cover operating shortfall seems very shortsighted to me. How long have we been trying to build the Second Ave line?

Some lines are closed before of a little rain due to poor infrastructure. the 5 uptown train shuts down whenever their is a little rain and redirect all the passenger to the 2 line which is already packed. Quinn does think long term much less think at all. She really is a stupid woman and self-serving.

Some lines are closed BECAUE of a little rain due to poor infrastructure. the 5 uptown train shuts down whenever theRE is a little rain and redirectS all the passenger to the 2 line which is already packed. Quinn does think long term much less think at all. She really is a stupid woman and self-serving. I'M on the iphone.

She would make such a stupid suggestion. Part of the reason the MTA is in such a mess financially is because of delayed infrastructure improvements, which began long before the MTA bought up all these decrepit privately held lines. Putting it off today will cost far more in the future.