New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. testified today at a public hearing on the effect the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) proposed fare hike and service cuts will have on New Yorkers.

“As New York City Comptroller, I certainly understand the fact that the MTA must quickly raise revenues and cut expenses in order to prevent a massive and imposing budget deficit. And I am pleased that the Board seems to recognize this, since many of you traveled to Albany yesterday to lobby the legislature. But I am here tonight to tell this Board, in no uncertain terms, that exorbitant fare hikes and drastic service cuts—including potential cuts to 87 bus lines, 23 subway lines and 196 station booths—are not the only solution,” Thompson said at the hearing.

Comptroller Thompson has proposed a number of options for the MTA to close its budget gap, including establishing a weight-based registration fee for vehicles in the 12 counties served by the MTA.  This plan, in conjunction with the reinstatement of a commuter tax, would provide more than $1.8 billion annually in transit funds to the MTA and help avert the tolling of the free East River and Harlem River bridges, placing an undo financial burden on the residents of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.

The Comptroller also called on City Hall to take a stand and block the proposed increase in Access-A-Ride fares from $2 to as much as $5 per trip, an increase of 150%. The City has the ability to block the fare as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreed upon by the MTA and the City in 1993. 

“Access-A-Ride users should not have to choose between going to work, having food in the house, taking a ride to the doctor or paying for medicine,” Thompson said.

For more on Comptroller Thompson’s plans to help ease the MTA’s financial situation, visit www.comptroller.nyc.gov

Comptroller Thompson’s Testimony:

Good evening Chairman Hemmerdinger, Board Members, and Executive Director Sander. Good evening fellow riders. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

We gather tonight at a time when our city faces the worst subway and bus service cuts in memory, a massive fare hike, and a woefully under-funded MTA capital program.

We can extricate ourselves from this crisis. But before I discuss my view on how to do this, let me say a few words about the riders who have come here tonight to testify before you, because they are the people who will be hurt most by your proposal to cut services and raise fares.

The riders here tonight may be here to speak out for the M8 bus—a line that provides an essential link between the West Village and the East Village. They may be here to speak for the Z line—which saves Queens and Brooklyn residents as much as an hour a week in travel time. Or they may have come to let you know that they simply cannot afford another fare increase during these tough economic times.

They speak tonight for millions more, since virtually anyone who rides mass transit will be affected.

As New York City Comptroller, I certainly understand the fact that the MTA must quickly raise revenues and cut expenses in order to prevent a massive and imposing budget deficit. And I am pleased that the Board seems to recognize this, since many of you traveled to Albany yesterday to lobby the legislature.

But I am here tonight to tell this Board, in no uncertain terms, that exorbitant fare hikes and drastic service cuts—including potential cuts to 87 bus lines, 23 subway lines and 196 station booths—are not the only solution.

One alternative, of course, is the Ravitch Commission plan. The Commission has advised Governor Paterson and the legislature to act quickly to ensure that all in the region who benefit from transit, directly or indirectly, pay for transit. I applaud the Commission’s approach. There is no question that drivers benefit from mass transit. Imagine how crowded our highways would be without the commuter railroads, for instance. Drivers must contribute their fair share.

But the Commission’s solution—tolling New York City bridges over the East and Harlem rivers—would disproportionately place the funding burden on Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and Staten Island residents, even though the entire region benefits from the MTA system.

That is why I have proposed an alternative: A weight-based vehicle registration surcharge across the 12-county MTA region that serves the same end far more equitably and efficiently.

My alternative is far fairer than tolls. My proposal assesses drivers across the region an additional weight-based fee of $100 annually for vehicles weighing 2,300 pounds or less, plus 9 cents for every pound over 2,300 pounds.

My plan has the potential to generate annual revenue of about $1 billion, while encouraging the use of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. When combined with a reinstated commuter tax, my plan could generate almost $2 billion annually for our transit needs. And we can implement this without the expensive infrastructure that tolling requires.

My proposal is also fairer—and less regressive—than the MTA’s proposed fare hike, which comes just 16 months after the previous hike. Simply put, the proposed fare hike places an unreasonable burden on riders at a time when many of them can least afford it.

Cash-strapped small businesses are struggling to survive, layoffs continue, and families are losing their homes. In this terribly difficult financial environment, the MTA must do everything in its power to avoid raising revenues on the backs of working men and women in our city.

As my office has shown, fare hikes are a particularly regressive way of raising money, with low- and middle-income New Yorkers getting hit particularly hard. A $99 monthly pass, a $2.50 base subway and bus fare or a $10 round-trip Access-A-Ride is unfair and another reason our State leaders must intervene.

Beyond that, these massive service-reduction proposals should not move forward, and I will work to ensure that any plan from Albany prevents them. Riders know that waits are already too long for buses, that subways are already too crowded, that there are already too many shuttered station booths.

I’ve spoken before about the most egregious of the MTA’s proposals: The Access-A-Ride fare hike. It calls for a 150 percent fare increase—six times what other riders face—and its real purpose would be not to raise revenue but to discourage ridership, which would reduce the MTA’s subsidy for each completed trip.

The Mayor has the legal power to end any consideration of this discriminatory increase, as I showed when I released the contract between the City and the MTA. But so far, inexplicably, he has not used his power. I therefore call on the MTA Board then to remove a proposal that is just plain wrong.

No mayor or MTA Board has ever allowed such an unconscionable increase. Access-A-Ride users should not have to choose between going to work or having food in the house, taking a ride to the doctor or paying for medicine. A $10 round-trip when the rest of us are paying far less is not only unfair, it is reprehensible.

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