It was all of seven months ago that, after much political wrangling and even some physical intimidation, Albany prevented the MTA’s “doomsday” budget scenario of service cuts and massive fare hikes. The package they agreed upon was, if you recall, a hodgepodge of taxes and fees, including a 50-cent taxi surcharge, a payroll tax, car-registration fees, rental-car fees, and a smaller bump in fares. At the time, it was decried as merely a temporary fix to a long-term budget problem, and guess what that’s exactly what it was! Because now the MTA is already short on money again, and it’s considering the very same service cuts that it threatened in its doomsday scenario, including shutting down 21 local bus routes, the W and Z lines, and overnight service at a few subway stops. “We’re not going to rely on anyone else to do anything for us,” MTA board member Mitchell Pally explains. “We’re going to rely on ourselves.” Thanks, we guess, but it would have been awesome if that were the attitude seven months ago.
Financially challenged MTA looks to slash bus routes, cut W, Z subway lines [NYDN]
