Congestion Pricing? Millionaire's Tax? MTA Needs More Money, Rep. Says

WINDSOR TERRACE, BROOKLYN — If you ride the F train to work in the morning, you may have seen (or maybe will see) Assemblyman Robert Carroll on the platform talking to people about the subway system's woes and the best ways to fund its fixes.

Carroll and the rest of the Democrats in the state Assembly have been called back to Albany, and funding the city's ailing subway system is sure to be at or near the top of their list of priorities. And as a native Brooklynite who never learned how to drive, Carroll rides the subway more than most of his state colleagues.

So Carroll has been going down onto subway platforms and asking residents in his district, which includes parts of Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Ditmas Park and Flatbush, how they'd like to see the state get some extra money.

"Universally, people understand that the MTA needs new revenue sources and that we need to have an overhaul of the management and the way in which we go about funding and organizing, structuring the MTA," Carroll told Patch. "It’s gonna be on the legislature and the governor that we come up with a plan."

The MTA, which is controlled by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state, has put forward a "Subway Action Plan" this summer that will cost about $836 million. More money would be needed to completely overhaul the subway's signaling system, a move that experts say is the only real way to meaningfully improve subway service.

"That’s the thing that is killing us right now," Carroll said. "We waste money, and we are expensive. But at the same time, we are still underfunding the system, even if we were an efficient system. We actually need to bring new revenue in and at the same time create new efficiencies."

Some ideas floated for extra cash have included a so-called congestion tax to add tolls on East River bridges below 60th Street, a plan supported by Cuomo. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is in favor of a "millionaire's tax" on the richest New Yorkers.

Carroll has been passing out a survey that has also asked for opinions on the state floating a bond, creating an "efficiency task force" and adding surcharges to taxis, Ubers and other for-hire vehicles.

Any of those measures, though, would have to come in January 2018 at the earliest, when the state assembly next reconvenes.

"The MTA is at a crisis point," Carroll said. "We should have a full debate, out in the open, discuss what these plans are. I would hope that the governor, my colleagues in the assembly and the state senate would go out and actually engage with the citizens of the state of New York."

You can take Carroll's survey online here.

Photo by Marc Torrence, Patch Staff