Dec 4, 2008 7:08 pm US/Eastern
13 NYC Bridges To Be Tolled Under MTA Bailout
Ravitch Presents Wide-Ranging Plan, Backed By Paterson & Bloomberg, That Would Save City $250 Million
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
It's official: New tolls, new taxes and a fare hike are need to alleviate the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's cash crunch. Governor David Paterson is asking the Legislature to approve a plan that would hit commuters no matter how they travel.
It's a story CBS 2 HD first told you about several days ago.
Paterson could not have been more blunt about what lies ahead for mass transit in this region.
"We're going to have to make the tough choices," he said. "It's either going to be one source of pain or the other."
Instead of the toxic cocktail proposed by the MTA -- a 23 percent fare hike and Draconian service cuts -- Paterson said he would adopt ideas proposed by former MTA chairman Richard Ravitch to charge employers in the 12-county MTA region a payroll --or mobility -- tax of a third of 1 percent, raise fares a more modest 8 percent, and put cashless tolls on the four East River and nine Harlem River crossings.
Tolls of the Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Manhattan and 59th Street bridges would be the same as the Midtown Tunnel and the RFK Bridge.
The fee to cross the Alexander Hamilton, Broadway, Macombs Dam, Madison Avenue, Third Avenue, Willis Avenue, University Heights, Washington and 145th Street spans would be the same as a single subway ride.
"We're really at this quite unique juncture where the question is which pain to you want to incur," Ravitch said.
The plan to rescue the MTA is such tough medicine that some politicians aren't anxious to have their names attached to it.
"The one thing I don't want to do is make this proposal my own," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "This should not be about personalities. This is for the greater good of everybody and everybody is going to have to participate."
To which Paterson replied in a light-hearted moment: "Well I think one thing that we've cleared up today is that the mayor never would have run for governor."
In these tough economic times the Ravitch plan has some obvious benefits for the cash-strapped state, city and county budgets. The plan called for the MTA to take over all regional bus services, money the city and counties won't have to shell out. New York City alone would save $250 million.
"It's a terrific package that combines service expansion, bus expansion for the communities that don't have good service with a package of revenues that will avoid the Draconian fare increases," said Andy Darrell of the Environments Defense Fund.
Some fiscal experts worried about putting another tax on tax-weary New Yorkers.
"We're already looking at the highest combined state and city income taxes in the nation," said Nichole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute.
The proposal now goes to Albany. Ravitch will help the governor sell the plan to the Legislature, including the notoriously skeptical Assembly. Speaker Sheldon Silver, who scuttled congestion pricing, seemed inclined to support this plan. He said that when Ravitch speaks, New Yorkers should listen.
The proposal also calls for tolls and fares to go up every two years to keep pace with the rate of inflation.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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