Mar 18, 2009 7:05 am US/Eastern
Bickering, Infighting Plague MTA Fare Hike Talks
Paterson Frowns On Senate Dems' Alternate Transit Plan
Deadline For 30 Percent Hike Closing In: March 25
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
The train is leaving the station on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bailout plan.
In just over a week the agency will be forced to order up fare and tolls hikes of up to 30 percent if there is no deal in Albany.
On Tuesday it was all finger pointing.
Call it a civil war, with 8.5 million commuters potentially on the casualty list unless something is done.
Governor David Paterson was all smiles Monday when he rode the subway, but the grin was wiped off his face by a Senate plan that -- he charges -- provides temporary treatment -- not a permanent cure -- for what ails the MTA.
"The solution must be taken now. We must be able to put this plan to bed," Paterson said Tuesday.
In an unprecedented move, the governor called transit advocates and business and labor leaders to his office to derail the Senate proposal.
The Senate wants a payroll tax, a 4 percent fare hike and no East River tolls. There's no money for capital projects to keep the system in "good working order." They say they'll do that sometime later.
"The idea that the Legislature will do six months from now, closer to the next election, that which they won't do now is to test the credulity of all of us who have some familiarity of what happens in Albany," Richard Ravitch said.
"You could drive a truck through the holes in that plan from the standpoint of its ability to maintain the fare," added Kathryn Wylde of the New York City Partnership.
The MTA said the Senate's math is fuzzy, that its plan would really require a 17 percent fare hike. MTA chairman Dale Hemmerdinger begged senators to go back to the drawing board.
"Please reconsider. Do your homework again and give us something that helps the riders and the general public and keeps the system going," Hemmerdinger said.
Even Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Senate Democrats are on the wrong track.
"We have a short-term stop gap solution that I don't think really works. We have to give long-term certainty to the businesses of New York, to the commuters of New York," Silver said.
But there's not much time for a solution. The doomsday plan, with its 30 percent fare and toll hikes, will be enacted in just eight days.
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