A Sunday Newsday editorial (Dec. 14) said it’s high time for Governor Pataki and the NY State legislature to come up with new revenue for the MTA system that doesn’t come directly from riders’ wallets.

"Time was when fare increases worked in combo with other reliable resources to rescue the city's subway system from the dreadful graffiti-scarred crises of the ‘70s and ‘80s. But the state’s contribution to MTA capital spending has lagged behind growing debt-service, pension and health-insurance costs. In addition, the MTA is counting on revenue that [State Comptroller Alan] Hevesi believes is not guaranteed, such as a ‘temporary’ franchise-tax surcharge that the state has renewed eight times since 1982. Albany must not let it expire at the end of next year.

"An extension may not be enough to stave off intolerable service cuts, however, so Gov. George Pataki and the State Legislature are obliged to increase funding. Yes, the timing is awful. But the alternative is unacceptable," the paper argued.

The editorial responded to refreshingly frank remarks by MTA executive director Katherine Lapp, who said the transit funding picture looking ahead was so bleak that spiraling subway crime and the return of graffiti could be real threats.

MTA capital programs under state administration’s preceding Governor Pataki’s generally applied fare increases along with new state business and other tax surcharges to help finance the system’s recovery. The last major new tax applied to MTA finances was the petroleum business tax, enacted in the early 1990s. 

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