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MTA Cuts Averted for Now

NEW YORK CITY-An agreement between Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders on funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was scheduled for a vote on Wednesday.

By Cody Lyon | Updated on May 06, 2009

NEW YORK CITY-For now, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s threats of tremendous fare increases and draconian service cuts are history thanks to an agreement hammered out by Gov. David Paterson and state legislative leaders Tuesday. The bill–which sources say was still, literally, a work in progress and had yet to see print as of noon Wednesday–gets voted on today.

If the reported bill is approved, it’s curtains for months of mass transit drama, at least for now. Preliminary details of the hammered out plan call for the cost of bus and subway travel to go up from $2 to $2.25, a much more “rider friendly” hike than the 20% or 30% originally threatened by the MTA’s doomsday budget.

Reportedly, the new funding mechanism calls for a payroll tax in all 12 counties served by the MTA of 34 cents for every $100. Thanks to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s muscle in Albany, around $400 million of that tax will be directed to the MTA’s capital plan for the next two years. The $400 million enables the agency to borrow around $6.5 billion for capital improvements.

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