Fare Hikes Grow Nearer As MTA Budget Passes

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority took another step toward fare increases Wednesday by passing a budget that relies on them. The beleaguered agency's nearly $17 billion 2019 budget includes about $270 million in revenue from a 4 percent fare and toll hike planned for next year.

All but two MTA Board members voted to approve the plan Wednesday despite concerns about the agency's grim financial picture and public criticism of the fare increases.

The MTA committed about a decade ago to relatively small fare and toll hikes every two years. The board has held public hearings on two proposals — one of which would raise the base subway fare to $3 — before an expected vote in January.

MTA Chief Financial Officer Robert Foran warned last month that the agency's budget deficit could grow to $1.6 billion in 2022 if fare hikes aren't implemented in 2019 and 2021.

Some board members, despite getting behind the budget, said the MTA has to wrangle its bloated bureaucracy and get costs more under control.

"It can’t go on," board member Andrew Saul said. "And I think this board very soon is facing a situation where we are going to have to have a massive restructuring of the MTA."

Board member Veronica Vanterpool said approving the budget plan before voting on a fare hike put the board between "a rock and a hard place."

Vanterpool and Carl Weisbrod, both Mayor Bill de Blasio's appointees, abstained from the vote.

"The riders are always the ones that we force to hold their responsibility to this system, and it is simply not fair," Vanterpool said.

"I think that we let money flow out in ways that we should not," she added.

Larry Schwartz, an appointee of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's who chairs the board's finance committee, pledged to lead the charge in restructuring the MTA, saying he would be "the biggest pain in the ass of this organization" in the endeavor.

But it's uncertain what exactly fare hikes will look like next year, if the board does ultimately pass them, he said. The two plans the board is currently considering may not be the final plan, he said.

"The riders shouldn’t have to be the first ones to step up to the plate," Schwartz said before leaving Wednesday's meeting for a medical appointment. "Others have to step up to the plate as well."

(Lead image: Samuel Santaella of Queens uses his MetroCard to enter the subway on Nov. 30, 2016. Photo by Richard Drew/Associated Press)