Jeff Dinowitz Criticizes Himself (Indirectly)

by: Roatti

Mon Mar 15, 2010 at 16:14:44 PM EDT

Riverdale Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz certainly isn't alone in the constant Albany game of cutting MTA funding or denying it new sources of revenue year after year and then grabbing a pitchfork when his constituents express anger at the service cuts that come as a necessity because of his anti-transit votes, but he is among the most shameless:

"The people who live in the outer boroughs, especially the outer edges of the outer boroughs" are always the hardest hit, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz told the MTA officials. "There are people who work hours other than nine to five, Monday to Friday."

Rather than threatening to cut service and hike fares, which Mr. Dinowitz referred to as "scare tactics," he suggested that the MTA work with city and state officials to find additional funding, such as from last year's federal stimulus, and come up with a more reasonable budget for future years.

"You're picking on the elderly, the disabled and students," Mr. Dinowitz said. "This is not the way to improve the city."

Nice pitchfork, Assemblyman.  However, your voting record and loud soapbox against congestion pricing denied the MTA of a badly-needed annual infusion of some $500 million dollars.  That's on you and every other elected official in Albany who decided to side with the wealthy suburban car commuter over the vast majority of metro-area residents who take transit to work.  So either put away your completely disingenuous pitchfork and start doing something about the MTA's long-term fiscal outlook or just shut the hell up.

Edgy subway ad to fight fare hikes and service cuts

by: DanLevitanWFP

Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 13:43:41 PM EST

Here's the email we sent out to WFP supporters yesterday -- over 150 people have already donated.  

WFP Launches Campaign to Hold Bloomberg Accountable on Campaign Promise to Fix the MTA

by: DanLevitanWFP

Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 13:52:26 PM EST

Now that the MTA is literally more broken than ever, the Working Families Party is launching a grassroots campaign to hold the Mayor accountable to campaign pledge.

Here's action alert we sent to WFP supporters this morning:

Love New York? New York urgently needs your help.

Our city's transit system is in crisis. The cost of a monthly MetroCard could rise to over $100 next year. Service is being cut on dozens of bus and subway lines. Crucial upgrades are being neglected.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran for re-election last year on a promise to fix the MTA -- but since this crisis started, he's been missing in action.

We have to make sure the Mayor and other politicians get that slowly killing the MTA isn't an option. So today, we're launching an all-out grassroots campaign -- an emergency push to save the MTA, working with NYC students, our friends at NYPIRG's Straphangers campaign, and other groups who know how much our city needs transit.

Our goal is to get 50,000 signatures, comments and calls to Mayor Bloomberg by March 24, when the MTA is next expected to take action on service cuts and fare hikes.

If you've spoken out before, speak out again. If you haven't, now's the time to jump in. Tell Mike Bloomberg to Save the MTA right now by clicking here:

www.saveoursubway.org

Albany Forgets to Re-Authorize MTA Passenger and Worker Representation

by: BingChester

Tue Jan 05, 2010 at 16:02:01 PM EST

Rider and union advocates lost their combined six seats on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board Friday when state legislation authorizing the nonvoting posts expired.

"This is a real shame," said Andrew Albert, one of the affected board members. "I guess it just wasn't on the radar."

Albert sat on the board as a member of the NYC Transit Riders Council, on behalf of subway and bus riders. The Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road riders councils also had one member each on the board. "We may not vote, but we're involved in the decision-making and are consulted," another former board member, Ira Greenberg of the LIRR riders council, said.

One of New York's best transit bloggers, Benjamin Kabek, cut right to the point in his analysis :

As with most of Albany's recent transit policies, for the state to allow these key appointments to expire at a time of fiscal crisis for the MTA is simply irresponsible. To make matters worse, four State Senators earlier this year sponsored S4480, a bill to extend the the term until 2012. The bill was committed to the Rules Committee in July and has languished there ever since. It's just your typical Albany support for the MTA.

Just another daily reminder of how dysfunctional our state government is and how we desparately need to fix it .

In 2010, the State Should Stop Its Criminal Neglect of the MTA

by: Roatti

Mon Jan 04, 2010 at 18:04:54 PM EST

(Workers tunneling in the 7 Train extension.  Photo: MTA)

Stephen Cohen has a nice summary of one of Pataki's worst legacies:

One of the victims of the economic downturn in New York is state support for mass transit. Unfortunately, this is not simply a result of the recent decline in state tax revenues, but rather a long-term trend that was exacerbated by over-borrowing for mass transit during the Pataki era.

(snip)

Unfortunately, under Governor Pataki, the mass transit capital subsidy was sharply reduced, forcing the MTA to use more and more of their budget to pay debt service on transit bonds. Even worse, during the current $6.8 billion state budget crisis, Governor Patterson has further reduced the state's subsidy for the MTA, contributing to the transit agency's $400 million budget gap.

Pataki was a bad example an anti-infrastruture Republican, and it's hard to stomach that now with Democrats in control of all the levers of state government, they're carrying out the same neglect.  The last MTA bailout was the ultimate  short-term politically pathetic bandaid solution.  Either the State has to mandate a minimum amount of expenditure for the MTA in the State Constitution, we need to toll the East River bridges, or implement congestion pricing.  Unless the MTA has enough fixed revenue streams to make up for the decline of state and city funding over the past decade, the system will fall into disrepair and its capital plans will be chronically under-funded.  Add that the additional infrastructure spending will boost employment, something really should be done.  

How Can We Fix the MTA?

by: BingChester

Sun May 17, 2009 at 16:46:47 PM EDT

Good News Everybody! Foley and Johnson Ok "Quick Fix" MTA Plan

by: BingChester

Mon May 04, 2009 at 23:25:28 PM EDT

Thankfully, after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, it appears that Senator Foley and Johnson will support the plan.

Surprising Hold-Outs On the MTA "Quick Fix"

by: BingChester

Sun May 03, 2009 at 20:25:27 PM EDT

Four Democrats are the on-record holdouts to this plan.  Their names might surprise you, as you'll find over the fold.

Completely Made Of FAIL

by: phillip anderson

Wed Mar 25, 2009 at 13:27:31 PM EDT

The Senate Dems Should be More Like Sheldon Silver

by: Roatti

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 17:34:09 PM EDT

Silver, if nothing else, has his finger on the political pulse of his conference and was able to cut a compromise where the MTA bailout's bridge tolls would be cut to $2. While I will never forgive Silver's deletion of congestion pricing in the most opaque manner legislatively possible, he appears to at least understand now that an essentially functional (and I use that term loosly) MTA is necessary to the city's survival.  

The Senate's (and frankly, the Governor's) obstinacy to politically painful actions and hard choices is not what I was expecting when we took over the chamber in the last cycle.  To be sure, it's a hell of a lot better than if Skelos was running the show, as every idiot in his conference has flat-out opposed any new bridge tolls.  But the Senate majority is not making an encouraging sign with this action, or lack thereof.  

The MTA finance committee just voted today to implement a drastic fare hike. To the Senators or any staffers who might be reading this, think ahead to next year's election: do you want to be known as the conference who let the MTA die? Stop twiddling your thumbs and make a hard choice. You wanted control and you got it- now use it.

And You Wonder Why His Poll Numbers Are Tanking...

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 12:08:28 PM EDT

David Paterson said the M.T.A. board should go ahead with raising fares at its Wednesday board meeting, implicitly admitting that state government will not enact a revenue package to mitigate fare hikes beforehand.

"I don't think that the agency should delay any action," Paterson just said at a Red Room press conference.

Yesterday, he said he was "not really optimistic" that he and lawmakers would reach an agreement on time. When asked if he was meeting about an M.T.A. bailout in the next 48 hours, Paterson repeated that he's been "trying to reach an agreement for the past several weeks."

...

A reporter asked Paterson if he felt he had failed.

"No, I think it's an aspect of government that we all have to recognize: these two gentlemen run conferences in the legislature that need consensus and the three houses have to agree," he said. "Ascribing any kind of blame to one sector of the triad is often a way that people try to explain it, but you've got to have consensus. That's the way our democracy works."

I'm sorry, but that's just pathetic. Look, I know that getting a deal that both works to actually solve the problem and is acceptable to enough lawmakers in both chambers is a very difficult thing to do. It most certainly is. But, people expect their leaders to, ya know, lead. Leaders need to make the case for the way forward and work hard to bring it about, not just walk away when the going gets tough.

Is this a case of the Governor not having sufficient juice anymore as his poll numbers take a dive off a cliff, or is this simply an ineffective executive tossing his constituent's interests aside because the job is too demanding?

Regardless, there's plenty of blame to go around here, but only one of the three men in a room carries the title "Governor." Only one of them represents all New Yorkers. Walking away is simply unacceptable.

And he seriously thinks he's running for anything next year?

Senator Foley On The MTA

by: phillip anderson

Fri Mar 20, 2009 at 10:59:09 AM EDT

How we got here

When the new Senate Majority took office in January, we inherited an economic nightmare the likes of which hadn't been seen since the Great Depression. A part of this economic crisis was the fiscal mess the MTA was embroiled in.  

The former Senate Majority - led partly by the current Minority Leader Dean Skelos - tripled the MTA debt, going on a borrowing binge for loans that would balloon into a fiscal disaster for our state. The Republican Leadership put the MTA on a path of financial ruin by sending its outstanding debt and debt service fees out of control.  

In 1996 the, the total outstanding debt held by the MTA was $8.6 billion. By 2008 MTA's debt had risen to $24 billion, triggering debt service in the amount of $1.5 billion per year. To put it in perspective, in addition to all its obligations, the MTA was paying $125 million each month for debt service alone.  

This failed policy didn't simply place the MTA's financial standing in a perilous position, it took away the authority's ability to borrow capital down the road and fix its financial books.  

The Republican leadership used the Metro Card as a credit card and did everything in their power to bankrupt this critically important component of our economy.  

By the time Democratic Majority took over the Senate in 2009, we had a transportation authority on life support and hemorrhaging.

Moving forward

The Senate Majority has put forth a plan that reduces a proposed increase in fares and payroll taxes. The proposed fare increase is reduced by 50% (from an 8% increase to a 4%) and the payroll tax increase is reduced by 25% (from 33 cents per $100 in payroll to 25 cents per $100 in payroll).

In addition, the plan mandates the MTA to open its books and take part in a thorough forensic audit. It will also requires the state to make a substantial commitment to Long Island's highways and bridges; infrastructure in need of immediate attention.  

The Senate Majority's plan is a starting point in negotiations with the Governor and the Assembly that will lead to continued operations from the MTA and make the transportation authority more transparent and efficient.  

We've already seen a substantial decrease in the amount of payroll tax proposed. This indicates that our negotiations are leading us toward the right direction.  

Part of why it's so important that we move in the right direction on our MTA policy is the impact its payroll tax provision could have on our schools. As negotiations on the current proposal continue, we want to safeguard our schools, just like we did when we prevented devastating mid-year cuts and brought in more than $150 million in education aid  as part of the stimulus money that averted  serious education cuts to Long Island schools.  

While they have no problem criticizing and being the party of "No," the Republican minority has not offered up a plan of their own, despite the fact that they were the architects of this crisis!

A real solution to this problem requires taking part in constructive dialogue that moves us forward towards a solvent MTA that is transparent, accountable, and responsive to the needs of Long Island's men and women who rely on the MTA to earn a living.  

On the web: Decisions made 9 years ago put MTA in current fix (Newsday)

The Reviews Are In

by: phillip anderson

Wed Mar 18, 2009 at 10:22:57 AM EDT

New York Times - Paterson Rejects Democrats' M.T.A. Plan

In an intensifying battle among Democrats, Gov. David A. Paterson on Tuesday flatly rejected a Senate version of a rescue plan for the financially troubled Metropolitan Transportation Authority and said he would continue to push for tolls on the East and Harlem River bridges.

Mr. Paterson chided the Democratic majority in the Senate for choosing what he described as a short-term solution that left big holes in future budgets at the authority. His strong stance suggested that the debate over how to prevent sharp fare increases and service cuts could drag late into the budget season.

"The solution must be taken now," Mr. Paterson said. "Unfortunately there seems to be a belief that these types of issues can be deferred into some sort of future activity. This is what's gotten Albany in trouble time and time again."

The governor was asked if there were any way the Senate plan could be adopted and provide a solution for the authority's problems.

He answered bluntly, "No."

Daily News - Get serious, Malcolm: Senate Majority Leader Smith delivers a massive turkey of an MTA plan

A scribbler on a napkin could have crafted a more coherent plan for preserving mass transportation in New York than the slapdash dodge offered yesterday by state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith.

Challenged to ensure the survival of affordable, reliable transportation for millions of riders, Smith and his Democrats delivered half measures that were, at best, half baked.

The flaws in Smith's prescription were as fundamental as can be - starting with the fact that his numbers didn't add up. This would be laughable except that, left unchecked, he and his colleagues would subject subway, bus and commuter line passengers to enormous fare hikes and declining service.

The senator protests that he is engaged in a serious effort to get the Metropolitan Transportation Authority onto long-term sound footing. He asked that we present this assertion as a matter of fairness. There. We've done so.

Now, we note - we emphasize - that rarely have we seen such a huge and damaging gap between a politician's rhetoric and reality. That's because Smith's presentation was an exercise in political calculation rather than considered policy-making.

A handful of his members, among them Brooklyn Sen. Carl Kruger, don't have the backbone to play straight with constituents.

Mired in deficits, the MTA will be forced to impose backbreaking fare hikes and service cuts, and to abandon track, station and signal maintenance, unless the Legislature provides funding.

A commission chaired by former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch proposed a modest payroll tax and tolls for the East River and Harlem River bridges. Gov. Paterson signed on, as did Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver after easing the tolls a bit. But Smith & Co. balked without providing a remotely credible alternative.

He promises they'll figure that out later. Right. Sure. First he'll have to clear up a detail: He says he would hold a fare hike to 4% this year, but when the MTA runs Smith's figures, they total out to requiring a 17% boost.

Poor guy, his plan is an epic bomb.

New York Post - MALCOLM IN THE MUDDLE

Forging a rescue of the cash-strapped MTA was Malcolm Smith's first big test as Senate majority leader.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Gov. Paterson were already on board with a bailout, at least in principle. All Smith had to do was bring his house into agreement.

He couldn't.

Indeed, if Senate Democrats were looking for the fastest way to run New York's transit system into '70s-era ruin, they couldn't have done much better than the snake-oil-infused compromise they proposed yesterday.

...

Still, it's clear that Smith has absolutely no control over his conference.

Yesterday's travesty was engineered by the same loathsome Senate foursome who withheld their support from Smith as majority leader until he bought them off with plum committee chairmanships.

That's not leadership. That's a commercial transaction.

If only New Yorkers who depend on a safe, reliable transit system had that kind of leverage.

If only Malcolm Smith had a spine.

New York Times - Falling Down on the Job of Maintaining Mass Transit

One night in 1981, the State Senate was in pitched battle over proposals to raise taxes to help pay for mass transit in New York City and the region. The bills needed 31 votes to pass. The 31st and final vote in favor was cast by Howard C. Nolan, a senator from upstate.

There was one slight problem. At the time Mr. Nolan's vote of "aye" was counted, he was actually in a hospital, having an operation. Had he been in the Capitol, he said later, he would have voted against the taxes.

Say what you will, those were the days when a state leader could round up votes, even from the unconscious.

...

It would be simple to say that Mr. Smith had fallen down on the job. The plain fact is that much of the state government is run by two exceptionally weak men, Mr. Smith and Gov. David A. Paterson. Both are hobbled by threadbare support from their party, and they give no evidence that they have the political skills to work around that.

Mr. Smith has a majority of 32 to 30 in the Senate, and at any moment, several in his own party are ready to throw him into a ditch. He has yet to supplement his power with the least bit of support from any Republicans, who have fallen from the majority after four decades and grumble that they can't even get a photocopier fixed in a building where they were once lords of the manor.

...

The Assembly made some compromises, limiting the new tolls to $2. But Mr. Smith could not get the agreement of any Republicans and apparently lost a number of Democrats who did not want to ask their constituents to pay to drive into Manhattan, although drivers who use the bridges are outnumbered 7- or 8-to-1 by riders of mass transit.

Ouch. That's going to leave a mark.

Back to the drawing board, senators, because this plan appears to be DOA.

MTA Bill Languishes, Weiner Says Exempt NYers From Bridge Tolls

by: phillip anderson

Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 15:39:03 PM EDT

There was talk over the weekend that a deal for a Metropolitan Transit Authority bailout was near. However, today a deal  seems far away as ever as opposition to the plan in the Senate has solidified in the form of at least 5 Senators who stand against it.

Majority Leader Malcolm Smith played down concerns that a few members were holding up the plan.  Smith insisted that the Senate does not have a full plan in place for members to decide on yet. "We're still going over the plan itself," Smith told reporters at a press conference this morning.

Smith and Paterson say that there is still time for a plan to be reached before the March 25 deadline. On that date the MTA says that it will have to make major cuts to service and increase fares if it has not received a bailout.

Critics say that the MTA bailout is the first real test of Smith's leadership. Smith faces dissension from the three Democratic Senators who stood against him in his bid to take over as the Democratic leader in the Senate.

...

The problem is that the majority has yet to hire all the staffers it needs to complete the task. Advocates worry that if there is not a deal on the MTA bailout before  budget talks heat up the plan will be lost in the shuffle.

Rep. Anthony Weiner has proposed his own plan, one that may help bring some of those senators on board. Why? Weiner's plan would exempt New Yorkers from the proposed tolls over the East River bridges.

Representative Anthony D. Weiner on Monday released his version of a rescue plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in which tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges that would be paid only by people who do not live in New York City.

Mr. Weiner, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn, and who is is planning to run for mayor in November, has long been an opponent of putting tolls on bridges where they don't already exist.

But he said on Monday that making new tolls - which he would set at $4.15 - payable only by non-city residents would be a compromise that could gain traction in Albany and would be a bit like reviving the commuter tax, which was eliminated 10 years ago.

He predicted the tolls would raise $391 million a year.

"This is my contribution to trying to solve this problem," Mr. Weiner said in a telephone interview.

Could this be what breaks the logjam? I guess we'll know soon enough.

On the web: Streetsblog.

Good Question

by: phillip anderson

Fri Mar 06, 2009 at 15:14:17 PM EST

Who's Protecting Whose Wallet?

Three Democratic state senators who have blocked the plan to charge tolls on the East River bridges and so prevent transit service cuts and fare hikes say they simply want to protect their constituents.

But which constituents?

Last year, in the midst of the congestion pricing debate, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Pratt Center for Community Development took a legislative  district by district look at where people work and how they get there. This data does not directly translate to the toll debate, since the tolls would affect anyone who crosses a now-free bridge to Manhattan while the congestion pricing proposal, in its final incarnation, only charges drivers south of 60th Street.

It provides some indication, nonetheless, and makes the stands of Sens. Ruben Diaz,  Pedro Espada and Carl Kruger somewhat baffling.

Most of Krueger’s constituents do have a car but do not use it for a daily drive to Manhattan’s central business district. Of the 32 percent of his constituents who commute to that part of Manhttan, about 84 percent take mass transit.

In Diaz’s Bronx district more than five times as many people take mass transit to the business district as drive. Two thirds of his constituents do not even own a car. In Espada's adjacent Bronx district, more than 70 percent of residents do not have a car and less than 4 percent drive to the central business district as compared with 29 percent who take mass transit.

Taxi drivers have to pay, too, and they will have to increase their fares. Who is gonna pay for that? The people,” Diaz  told Gotham Gazette. Or at least all those residents of the South Bronx who take cabs to work every day.

...

The impasse among the Democrats leaves the decision on the tolls up to the Republicans, particularly the three GOP state senators from the city, the Times reports. In the meantime, the South Bronx restaurant worker and the medical tech from Mill Basin can rest easy knowing that, if subway fares rise, thy can always take a taxi to work.

I'm not sure just whose interests the Diva Three think they are standing up for, but it's pretty obvious it's not those of the people they were elected to represent.

Undeniable Spending

by: BingChester

Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 13:12:47 PM EDT

Building Colapses, Metro North Service Suspended

by: phillip anderson

Tue Mar 04, 2008 at 16:13:15 PM EST

Updated, 4:10 p.m. | Service on all three main lines of the Metro-North Railroad - the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines - was suspended at 3:15 p.m. after a vacant five-story building collapsed at 124th Street and Park Avenue, one block from the 125th Street station in Harlem, where all three lines stop on their way to and from Grand Central Terminal. An untold number of trains and passengers were left waiting for service to resume. Passengers on trains at stations were told to leave and find alternative means of travel.

There were no reports of any injuries. A wall of the building, at 102 East 124th Street, collapsed around 1 p.m., and after city workers responded to the scene, the rest of the building fell, officials said. The stability of an adjacent vacant building, at 100 East 124th Street, has been compromised, and the building will be demolished imminently as a precaution, officials said.

Best of luck getting home, folks. Hopefully the suspension won't last too long.

UPDATE: (5:10pm) WNYC is now reporting that service has been resumed but that riders should expect significant delays. Good luck, commuters.