Free Student MetroCards Saved

At last Friday's protest (AP)

After a large protest last week and steady outcry over the past six months, the MTA has abandoned plans to cut the free Student MetroCard program. The card allows over 500,000 students free rides to and from school, but the agency wanted to scrap the plan to help close its $800 million budget gap. Below is the MTA's statement, which acknowledges that everyone's finances are hurting—"We recognize the very difficult financial environment for not only the State and City, but for the hundreds of thousands of families in New York City who frankly could not afford to pay the added cost of transit fares for school transportation"—but points out that because the program will remain, its deficit will grow.

The Post reports that the state agreed to kick in $25 million (which is a decrease from $45 million) to fund free Student MetroCards, while the city will keep its contribution to $45 million and "the MTA will foot the remaining $144 million. The agency is expected to make up the money used for the fares by further fattening its $400 million budget shortfall for 2010 and 2011, sources said."

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) told NBCNewYork, "The MTA needs and deserves more money, but using the students as a bargaining chip in that was never a good idea." Still, CityRoom points out, "Transit officials insisted that it was not their responsibility to pay for the program, noting that most municipalities support student transportation using state and city money. In New York, those contributions have flat-lined or disappeared; Albany slashed its own financing for the program to $6 million in November."

MTA statement about Student MetroCards:

The economic downturn has created a fiscal crisis for the State, City and the MTA. The MTA has been doing its part to lower costs by reducing administrative staff, renegotiating with our suppliers and working to reduce overtime. But these actions are not enough to close an $800 million budget shortfall, and we’ve been forced to make tough choices, like cutting service and eliminating free and discounted MetroCards for New York City students.

The MTA believes that school children should not have to pay to travel to school, but that funding this transportation is the responsibility of the State and City, as it is throughout the state. For the past few months we have worked closely with the Governor, Mayor and legislative leaders to address this issue. The City has held its contribution steady at $45 million, while the Governor and Legislature recognized the State’s role by restoring $25 million. While we had hoped that the State and City would pay the total cost of this program, we recognize the very difficult financial environment for not only the State and City, but for the hundreds of thousands of families in New York City who frankly could not afford to pay the added cost of transit fares for school transportation. We heard loud and clear at our public hearings, in meetings with student leaders and in protests around the city, that charging students would have a life-changing impact on the ability of New Yorkers to receive a quality education. In light of these unbearable impacts, the MTA has decided to abandon the proposal to charge students for travel to and from school. As a result, the budget deficit that we are facing will increase, but the alternative is worse. Further actions needed to close this gap will be addressed when our preliminary financial plan is released in July.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on June 18, 2010 8:10 AM

Comments [rss]

John L

Remember years ago when the infamous Leona Helmsley's maid said to her, "You must pay a lot of taxes" and Helmsley said: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." It was true then and it's certainly true now. She was right, she knew what she was talking about but it was suppose to be a private joke among the country's elite. Through loopholes, tax shelters, off shore accounts and other ingenious accounting practices created by our politicians the rich barely pay any taxes and we the working man/woman pay the burden.

The ultra rich in this country are looting this country. America's Top 1%, the ones that as of 2007 owned 50.3 % of America, are looting this country, the next 19% own 42.7% and the lowly 80% of Americans only own 7% of America's financial wealth. As we point fingers at each other or pick on the illegal immigrants, the Top 1% is getting richer and richer and the rest of us are getting poorer and poorer. We pay taxes and then our politicians at the urgence of their lobbyists give the money to the Top 1% to bail them out, or for military equipment or services related to these wars and they continue to get richer and richer. I just read yesterday how the casinos got millions in stimulus money from the federal government, what a joke. Where's our stimulus package? Millions of Americans losing their homes and who's profitting from that?

How many Americans' pursuit of the American Dream was shattered and their lives destroyed by the Top 1% during this banking crisis? First, the Top 1% made a profit by selling them houses they couldn't afford at inflated prices. Then made a profit remortgaging the properties over and over. Then the Top 1% cried broke and we "saved" them by bailing them out and now they're making a profit by repossessing these peoples' homes and taking whatever equity these Americans had in them. Then they resell them again and the cycle continues. That's how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, over and over again. They like to refer to it as an "economic shift". How come the money never seems to get "shifted" to the working men and women in this country?

According to economist Edward N. Wolff at New York University (2010) the bottom 80% of Americans only owned 7% of America's financial wealth. How long can this go on? What's it going to take to realize that this Top 1% is the biggest problem facing America? The terrorists are just a nuisance compared to them. Americans are becoming economic slaves to this Top 1%. There's no end in sight, they've destroyed the middle class, along with the American Dream and now the only thing left is to squeeze everything out of America's working poor.

America we need to wake up before its too late.

schadenfreudian mensch

BTW not that it makes such a large difference but the Swiss has agree to give up on their American tax dodging customers to the IRS.

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/06/17/2010-06-17_swiss_parliament_approves_ubsus_tax_deal.html

Stevennnn

Eventually everything will come crashing down and people will start to wake up with riots breaking out throughout the county, which the police and military wouldn't be able to control.

John L

As scary and farfetched as that sounds you really have to consider what will happen when 80% of the population is fighting for only 5% or 4% of the nation's wealth. What will the typical American standard of living be like then?

This is the first generation of Americans where the kids standard of living will not be better than their parents. Most adult kids can't even afford to move out of their parents homes anymore. How bad is it going to get before people beginning rioting in the streets?

But they distract us with issues such as immigration, so we can blame the immigrants for taking American jobs. I'm not saying that maybe there isn't a little truth to that but that's not the real problem here. If we deported every illegal immigrant out this country today 80% of Americans would still only own 7% of America's financial wealth, that's the real issue. The elite ultra rich are looting our country, this is OUR country, right?

whitecastlerock

Ease up dude, the kids have their metro cards back-it's not the end of the world, or as bleak as you would like to portray it. There aren't bread lines–at least not yet.

Stevennnn

I'm was referring to the past decade or two of life in this country. Americans are getting more greedy and self center by the day. Everything is going up in price yet pay checks are holding steady. Corruption is out of control in our government. Corporations are running the country with the politicians in their pocket.

m015094

That's paranoia speaking. The 2008 financial "crisis" was pretty much as bad as it gets and look at what happened to peoples' everyday lives - not much. Apathy is rampant in this country. There won't be any riots and the financial system will be back to business as usual in no time.

schadenfreudian mensch

Not that I don't totally agree with your statement but I do have to quibble about all these people who bought these houses they couldn't possibly afford. Were these people just stupid or uneducated? Did they not understand the concept of adjustable-rate mortgage or interest only mortgage? What happened to personal responsibility? What happened to due diligence on the person's part when purchasing as house? Buying a house isn't like buying a television or washing machine. It's a big ass commitment in terms of time and money so isn't it a given that you understand thoroughly what you're getting yourself into when make that leap? So yea if my statement colors me a little unsympathetic to the plight of people who bought into this little scam than so be it.

John L

There's definitely enough blame to go around for everyone but I see them as victims of unscrupulous predatory lenders who took advantage of them. These were hardworking American many with more than one job who were robbed of the American dream by Wall Street "experts" who knew exactly what they were doing. These "experts" acted as con artists and destroyed the lives of these Americans all in the name of profits, but profits for who? Who got rich from these scams?

I'd like to point out two articles you might find interesting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/business/economy/31memphis.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sally-kohn/foreclosing-on-america-ed_b_615613.html

We can spend all day finding reasons to blame the victims but don't worry they learned their lesson, most are homeless with terrible credit, and lost all their savings and equity, so I guarantee you they won't do it again. But will the Wall Street elite with their multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses, did they learn their lesson? Their still flying around in their private jets trying to figure out a new scheme.

John L

Maybe they'll prey on college students by devastating and handicapping them next. Destroy a whole new generation as they begin their pursuit of the American Dream. Maybe they'll burden them with credit cards (with no jobs yet) and student loans (from schools where the diplomas aren't worth the paper their printed on) backed with taxpayer money, sounds familiar? The banks profit when the students pay but if they can't pay then there's no worry on their part because the loans are backed by the Federal Government (You and I, the taxpayers). We'll get screwed once again.

Here a few articles on how they're doing it now:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/subprime_goes_to_college_FeiheNJfGYtoSwmtl5etJP

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/08/banks-paying-colleges-for_n_604109.html

I think everyone is to blame for the financial meltdown/crisis or whatever they want to call it. The government, Wall Street, the victims/borrowers but instead of focusing on the little guys look at the big boys who created the mess, took advantage of the system, and all in the name of profits.

schadenfreudian mensch

Don't worry the Feds want their pound of flesh. You can't default on your student loans by declaring bankruptcy. So no matter what minimum wage job you get with your fancy degree unkie Sam will get his cut until you're put down 6ft under.

Splicer

Word.

Splicer

The wealthy are allowed to be deadbeats and cheats by a system that rewards them for both. It's everyone else that pays the price.

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

The private developer chosen by the Bloomberg administration to run the new $340 million Yankee Stadium parking system is two years behind on its city rent.

http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2010/06/bad-stadium-deal-by-edc-screws-city.html

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

yes, but the agency will have to find savings from someone else. Mayor bloomberg diverted billions to his real estate projects with no cutback but increases instead. he would have used some of that money set aside for these projects (coney island, hudson yards, willets points) to fund student metro cards.