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Fare Game: Assembly Hearing Focuses On MTA Budget

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Jul 27, 2007 3:52 pm US/Eastern

Fare Game: Assembly Hearing Focuses On MTA Budget

by Magee Hickey
NEW YORK (CBS) ― A state Assembly committee is holding a hearing Friday to get a closer look at the MTA's finances. The committee wants to know if there's really a need for the proposed fare hikes.

MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander will be the first to testify at the 1 p.m. committee hearing at 250 Broadway.

He can expect a grilling from state lawmakers who will want to know why the MTA needs a fare hike when they have a $1 billion budget surplus.

Straphangers got their first chance Thursday to sound off directly to Sander, who was handing out leaflets on a subway platform at Grand Central Terminal.

"I'd like to know what's happening to all the money from the tolls on bridges. Where's it all going?" asked one subway rider

When CBS 2 News tried to ask Sander about putting off the hike until there's a real deficit, a heckler tried to shout down the MTA official.

Sander, "If you spent the billion dollars next year, we could avoid it, but then in '09, we would then have to increase it by 15 percent and cut service by 7 percent, and we think that's a worse choice," Sander said.

Sander took the heckler's expletive in stride.

"You can't expect New Yorkers for them to say, 'We're just thrilled you're increasing fares.' We don't expect that," he said.

Friday's public hearing will focus on MTA finances and the possible fare hike -- which the MTA wants to be a 6.5 percent increase next year. And starting in 2010, they want a hike every two years tied to inflation.

Do commuters have advice for Sander? "Yeah, retire!" on straphanger said.

Friday's public meeting is just the first in a long series of future hearings. Another is scheduled for this fall.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.