FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM DECEMBER 13, 2018 • QUEENS BUSINESS • THE QUEENS COURIER 43
queens business
Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
MTA urged to fi nd funds elsewhere as fare hike looms
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@cnglocal.com
@QNS
While the MTA deliberated with the
public over possible fare increases to fund
overhauls to the failing system, commuters
made their opinions known at hearings
in both Brooklyn and Queens.
A hearing at Brooklyn’s Long Island
University on Dec. 11 those within the
auditorium and those rallying outside
telling agency offi cials, including NYC
Transit President Andy Byford, to look
to the legislature and congestion pricing
for funding.
“Asking everyday New Yorkers to
foot the bill for the MTA’s shortcomings
is wrong and completely unfair,”
Assemblyman Ron Kim said in a press
release from the rally. “I believe that using
fare hikes to restore our broken infrastructure
is the wrong answer, and that
commuters should not be forced to shoulder
the burden of fi xing issues they didn’t
cause. We as a city and state should be
providing the public funding needed to
resolve our transit system crisis.”
Protestors against the fare increases also
made noise at another hearing Tuesday
night at York College and focused on
Long Island Rail Road fares which could
increase by four percent while subways
and buses could see an increase $3.
MetroCard Swipes could stay the
same, however, with increases only being
applied to monthly passes.
Transit advocate group, the Riders
Alliance held a rally Dec. 10 at Queens
Plaza in which Forest Hills resident Tina
Nannarone, 69, urged the MTA to turn to
other proposals before placing additional
burdens on straphangers.
“I love the subways and I can’t believe
politicians let them get so broken down,”
Nannarone said. “Like most riders I am
angry that the state would raise the fare
without fi xing the subways. All those
delays are costing all of us time and
money, not to mention stress. State leaders
need to get together a funding plan
fi rst, starting with congestion pricing and
fi x the subways before they ask us to pay
more.”
In January, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s
FixNYC advisory panel laid out a plan
to put the fi nancial burden instead on
motorists by imposing an $11 toll on cars
entering Manhattan below 59th Street.
Commercial trucks would pay $25.
But the Cuomo has not made a move
on congestion pricing since the proposal
was unveiled in January 2018.
At a Monday MTA board meeting,
Byford proposed better fare evasion prevention
as a means of keeping funds from
slipping through their fi ngers claiming
that simply placing MTA personnel at
turnstiles is an eff ective deterrent.
According to the MTA, the number
fare-beaters has doubled since 2011 costing
the agency around $215 million this
year. About 500,000 people per day evade
swiping their MetroCard for subways
and buses, the agency announced at the
Monday board meeting.
“I just want to put into perspective the
diff erence between a million and billion,”
one speaker at the Brooklyn hearing
said in reference to the MTA’s projected
$19 to $30 billion budget for system
wide overhauls. “So a million seconds
is 12 days and a billion seconds is
31.7 years; $215 million is a drop in the
bucket and basically blaming poor people
for the rising fares is a way of criminalizing
the poor even further.”
Former MTA Chair Joe Lhota said at an
Oct. 24 meeting that fare hike could pull
the agency out of the red by referring back
to 2009 when the board voted on service
reductions paired with 30 percent increases,
but claimed that option may be tabled
if the impending MTA defi cit, estimated to
be around $1 billion by 2022, is resolved.
At a November board meeting, following
Lhota’s sudden resignation, Byford
said raising fares was the last thing he
wanted the agency to do.
“We don’t want to go down this road.
We absolutely do not. It’s anathema to
me,” Byford said before adding that they
may have no other choice until a reliable
funding source can be established.
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