Streetsblog New York City

The New York Building Congress is mobilizing to support the MTA's budget, both operating and capital.

An erstwhile ally is getting back into the ring to fight for transit riders.

Traditionally, the politically powerful construction industry has focused its attention on keeping the MTA’s capital program funded. Contractors and the building trades unions depend on the MTA’s maintenance and expansion projects for business, but haven’t been so concerned if an unbalanced operating budget ended in fare hikes or service cuts.

Now, however, the MTA’s bottom line has been so battered by Albany’s attacks that one top construction industry group has begun to advocate for stabilizing the operating budget. Unless Albany makes the operating budget right, they say, it’ll take down the capital program with it.

Writes the New York Building Congress in its newsletter:

The State’s financial gimmickry has forced capital priorities to compete for the same resources as the MTA operating budget. Despite a yawing capital funding hole, the MTA recently borrowed $500 million from its “Capital Financing Fund” to pay operating expenses. The MTA claims it will repay this money beginning in 2012, a year it already anticipates a $207 million operating deficit. However, if it does not, the MTA reports that it “will be unable to meet obligated capital program expenditures, further increasing the $10 billion funding gap.”

In other words, the wall between capital and operating dollars is increasingly porous. If Albany continues to raid the operating budget, the capital program will be short and the transit system will return to 70s-style disrepair. If the $10 billion hole in the capital plan isn’t filled, the MTA will have to take on still more debt to finish necessary work, debt which straphangers will have to pay off one MetroCard swipe at a time.

As we reported earlier today, it seems that tomorrow’s executive budget is likely to continue raiding MTA dedicated funds, though without instigating further fare hikes or budget cuts. The Building Congress decries those raids, saying that they are “choking the system most essential to the economy’s recovery and long-term health.”

But stopping the raids of dedicated revenue streams won’t be enough to put the MTA’s finances in order. The Building Congress also lays out a string of additional ways the state starves transit riders riders that need to be stopped:

Read more…

The Daily News published an op-ed today that highlights the broad coalition of labor unions, business interests, good government groups, transportation advocates and neighborhood activists who want Albany to adopt the Ravitch Commission's MTA rescue plan.

Yesterday the coalition sent this letter [PDF] to every member of the state legislature. Notably, three of the state's biggest unions -- the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International, and United Federation of Teachers -- have signed on. These labor groups were not part of the coalition that fought for congestion pricing last year, but on this issue, they are firmly on board. On this issue, they're united with the same business leaders whom they're fighting against when it comes to the proposed millionaire's tax. Unlike the State Senate, these leaders grasp the implications of sharply hiking fares while drastically cutting service. They don't want to risk the region's future by letting the transit system fall apart. They do want a plan that provides a long-term answer, and that includes bridge tolls. Here's their full letter:

Dear Legislator:

We represent the citizens of New York who depend upon a safe, clean and reliable public transportation system. We represent the working class New Yorkers -- many of whom do not own automobiles -- who depend upon an affordable public transportation system to get to their jobs, to their schools and to their health care providers. We represent the employers of the region that recognize that a well functioning subway, bus and commuter rail network is the prerequisite for continued economic growth and is what sets New York apart from the rest of the country. We represent the hard-working building trades and construction workers responsible for New York’s skyline that are dependent upon public sector projects to put food on the table during these hard times. And we represent those that care about reducing the asthma rates of children in disproportionately impacted communities throughout the city and about making this city a whole lot greener, more equitable and a little bit more livable.

We represent your constituents, and we are calling on you to act and adopt a comprehensive, long term funding plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It must be a plan that provides for affordable fares, expanded service and long term capital investment. And it must be adopted now -- before the Authority is forced to raise fares and tolls by as much as 30 percent, while at the same time drastically reducing service across the system.

The New York Legislature has had long enough to act. This issue is no surprise to those that have been paying attention. Almost a year ago, Governor Paterson called on Richard Ravitch to head a Commission to review options for comprehensively addressing the MTA’s operating and capital funding needs. This Commission represented business, labor, environmental advocates and everyday straphangers. And the proposal that the Commission put forward has the broad-based support of all of these constituencies -- your constituencies. It is a proposal that is fair, balanced and comprehensive. It relies on transit riders, motorists and the employers that benefit from the system to all participate in the solution for saving the system.

In a letter to Marc Shaw, Chairman of the New York City Traffic Mitigation Commission, the New York Building Congress urged the Commission to support a congestion pricing plan that dedicates all revenues to capital improvements for the city's transit system. The NYBC also indicated their support for the MTA's propsed fare hike "as merely one element of a long-term multi-layered response to the considerable financial challenges faced by the MTA." Download the letter and here's an excerpt:

The economic health of our City and State depends on robust transit infrastructure, which has become increasingly difficult to maintain, not to mention grow, using existing funding mechanisms alone.

The wisdom of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan is that, in addition to reducing traffic and helping to clean the environment, it allows for a balanced, well-financed, long-range capital program that will encourage increased use of mass transit over the long term. With a dedicated and predictable flow of revenue, New York could reliably plan and execute complex, multi-year transportation projects.