From: mrbrklyn@panix.com   
      
   This is all crap.  First of all, I doubt the ridership numbers when   
   everyone is hopping over the turnstyle.  Why do riders have to pay for   
   fare beaters.  The MTA has to be accountable!   
      
      
      
   from the Daily News   
      
   Saving the subway, again: Dedicated taxes have to increase to fund transit   
   Daily News Editorial Board   
   2–3 minutes   
      
   As former MTA chairman and lieutenant governor Dick Ravitch correctly wrote   
   here last Monday, the lifeblood of the city, the subway, needs a new permanent   
   source of revenue to make up for lost fares of the millions of passengers who   
   stopped riding    
   regularly since COVID struck. Two days later, Gov. Hochul, in presenting her   
   budget plan, did exactly that by proposing new income streams for transit.   
      
   Hochul recognizes that New York is stuck at about 60% of pre-COVID subway   
   ridership. We know plenty of people who used to buy 30-day MetroCards for $127   
   monthly but haven’t bought one in three years. That’s $1,500 a year the   
   MTA isn’t getting from    
   each person who now works from home.   
      
   In 2019, the annual subway farebox was $3.6 billion. This year, with the   
   economy fully reengaged, the forecast is $2.6 billion. That missing $1 billion   
   has been made up by federal COVID aid, but cash from the feds is drying up.   
   Hochul is right, but get the proper mix of support.   
      
   Hochul is right, but get the proper mix of support. (Darren McGee/Office of   
   Governor Kathy Hochul)   
      
   In 1981, when Ravitch was MTA chair, Albany approved a spate of dedicated   
   transit taxes, including the mortgage recording tax, the real property   
   transfer tax and a tiny piece of the sales tax. In 2009, the year he became   
   LG, Ravitch proposed a payroll    
   tax, which was adopted.   
      
   Hochul wants to tick up the payroll tax, from 0.34% to 0.5%, and also use   
   money from three possible future casinos. Yes to the payroll tax and no to   
   gambling on speculative casinos, of which Hochul even said, “if there are   
   any.” Public funding of    
   transit should be broad based, so better to adjust the payroll tax and the   
   sales tax and the other levies than rely on gambling addicts who make up too   
   much of the house’s take.   
      
   The governor also wants MTA Chair Janno Lieber to find $400 million in annual   
   savings. With labor covering 60% of costs, look for more than that, like one   
   person train operation, used almost everywhere else in the world instead of   
   two crew members per    
   train. And end granting each employee a paid holiday on their birthdays.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)