It will be the ironic if inaction on transit budget problems by Governor Pataki next year led the MTA to reduce the discounts it offers for weekly and monthly subway and bus passes.

Pataki’s major mass transit legacy so far is the introduction of free bus-subway transfers and the discounted weekly and monthly fares in 1997 and 1998, which in turn led to a sustained ridership boom.

Last week MTA officials looked ahead — publicly — at their 2004 budget and the outlook several years ahead. They said that unless transit fare and bridge toll revenue picks up, or higher levels of state and city assistance are forthcoming, the Metrocard discounts could be reduced in 2005. In other words, another fare increase may be in the works for riders using 30-day and 7-day passes, including similar passes for express buses. MTA leaders said they would try to hold the $2 base fare stable until at least 2007. The Hudson Valley’s Journal-News reported that discounts for commuter rail fares and bridge tolls could also be reduced in 2005, if needed to fill budget gaps.

A chief cause of the looming MTA deficits is escalating debt service payments stemming from the huge amount of borrowing the agency undertook to finance its current capital program.

Transit advocates and observers such as the Daily News called on the state to avoid any roll-back of discounted fares. MTA capital programs in the 1980s and the early 1990s were financed by a combination of toll and fare increases and new revenues levied by the state government in the downstate MTA region. Under Governor Pataki, the agency has relied on the two largest fare increases in the system’s history, and borrowing.

The MTA presentation last week suggests that practice is not sustainable.

The Straphangers Campaign called on the state to devote more aid to city transit. The Daily News urged the MTA to launch a cost-cutting campaign, said the agency’s leadership needs to deliver a "far more concrete petition for funding" in Albany, and urged the governor and legislators to ensure that riders are not visited with another big fare increase.

It’s still unclear if the budget problems will spell trouble for another potential Pataki legacy — the start of construction for the first major NYC transit system expansion projects in several generations. The MTA is trying to get going on the plan to link the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central Terminal, but the work’s projected costs have reportedly been escalating to the point where the project managers are re-thinking some elements of its design. Work on the Second Avenue Subway is also supposed to get started within the next few years. The delay of expected federal transportation funding legislation this year (see MTR #430) and the uncertainty about the federal bill’s ultimate funding levels may affect the timetables and the share of those projects’ costs that the MTA or state government will have to bear. Governor Pataki also wants to add more big projects to the many under consideration in NYC, noting again last week his support for connections between major airports and lower Manhattan. The next MTA capital program is likely to be worked on next year for adoption in 2005. 

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