Results tagged “fareincrease”

The sky is falling undergound! (And above ground, where the buses drive.) At an MTA finance committee this morning, officials announced that they're looking at a $1.2 billion budget deficit in 2009, which is $300 million more than what was projected in July. Chief executive Elliot Sander says the dire fiscal situation was caused by a sharp drop in revenue from real estate and corporate taxes. Sanders also said that because "the 2000-2004 capital program was essentially put on a credit card," the MTA is facing massive interest payments which are projected to rise to $2 billion by 2012. According to City Room, Sanders warned that "if the governor and the Legislature do not act within a certain period of time, in the spring, then the fare and toll increase and the service reductions will take place." In a statement, Governor Paterson reminded New Yorkers that a special commission will soon release a report on ways to manage the MTA's "dire fiscal situation." One option under consideration is to start charging tolls on the East River bridges.

That mayor Bloomberg has an answer for everything. Cabbies want a fuel surcharge to help cover gas costs? Let them drive hybrids. The MTA is promising another fare increase? Let the smokers pay for it. Hizzoner said yesterday that the cost of subway and bus rides won’t have to go up much at all if the state collects taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations. "That just alone would replace one of those fare increases," Bloomberg told reporters, insisting that the tobacco revenue could plug a $700 million hole in the MTA’s budget.