The ruling by NY State Supreme Court Justice Louis York last week, directing the MTA to roll back its recent transit fare increases, overshadowed an MTA announcement of steps it says it will take to increase agency transparency and public understanding of its actions.

The basic facts regarding the court’s roll-back ruling are these:

· An appeal of the decision by the MTA prevents the two-week clock set by Justice York from beginning to tick.

· The Straphangers Campaign and the MTA both say that the appeal should be expedited, and not drag for weeks or months through the courts.

· The NY group of the AAA filed its own suit at the end of the week to prevent MTA tolls from rising. York’s decision addressed only transit fares, but the AAA says the same logic of public accountability should apply to the MTA’s toll increase.

However the cases turn out — whether the MTA will need to hold a new set of hearings in order to raise tolls and fares — York’s ruling elevated the MTA’s public relations debacle around the fare increase and its budget disclosures to a true catastrophe. It will be difficult to imagine a climate going forward this year where MTA reform is not on the minds of decision makers in Albany, editorial writers and the public.

The MTA apparently plans to submit bills in Albany for its own reorganization, in accordance with a general agency consolidation plan outlined by Governor Pataki last fall. That will likely trigger a round of amendments seeking to enshrine greater transparency and public accountability in state law. A variety of bills that would require the MTA to post performance and budget data on its web site, release budget proposals well in advance of board action and take other, similar actions are already pending in Albany. More far-reaching proposals would switch the power of appointment of the MTA inspector general from the governor to the state’s attorney general.

New steps outlined by the MTA itself last week may accomplish some of the aims of this legislation, although we have not yet seen details of the MTA proposals. The MTA Board is likely to soon consider:

More time for budget review: The preliminary budget for the next year will be released in July (moved up from November), and re-released along with a 4-year plan in October. Public comment will be in November, and the next year’s final budget will be adopted by December 31. Within 60 days of next year’s budget adoption date, an updated four-year plan will be released.

More info on web: All backup financial info will be available on the internet, and preliminary budgets will be sent to the governor, state legislature, NYC mayor and the suburban county executives in July for review.

New group of advisors: The MTA will create an informal group of budget reporting advisors. Former NYC deputy mayors Peter Powers and Stanley Brezenoff, former city budget directors Diana Fortuna and Michael Jacobson, and former city corporation counsel Paul Crotty will be the members of this group.

MTA executive director Katherine Lapp announced the changes at a meeting of the MTA board’s finance committee last week.

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