Responding to press questions Wednesday about Conway’sstatement on a transit fare hike, Mayor Giuliani likened transit fare increasesto rainstorms and changing seasons — "the reality is that fares, like everythingelse over time, tend to have to be increased in order just to maintainservice," said the Mayor.

The reality is that fare hikes are a product of policy.The 1995 25-cent, 20% increase in the city bus and subway fare was nota bolt from the blue, it was the result of deep cuts in city and statesupport for the MTA. During the Koch Administration, New York City’s contributionto the capital program was twice what it is under Mayor Giuliani.

Now the Mayor has insisted on earmarking the city’s contributionto the transit capital program entirely for a rail connection to LaGuardiaAirport, a project still searching for a workable plan. That project willin fact cost more than the city’s total 2000-2004 contribution to the program.

Fare hikes are far more likely and severe when politicalleaders refuse to find other resources to support public transit, the backboneof New York City. Depending on how MTA finance issues work out, Mayor Giuliani’s main transit legacy may have less to do with airport access and more todo with presiding over the two largest fare increases in the city’s history.

Governor Pataki’s response to fare questions this weekseemed more constructive. He said that he hoped a fare hike could be avoidedor minimized, and that he was ready to work with the Legislature on thetransit plan.