Spies ‘mark’ but turns in a gun goon
THE $3 SUBWAY ride is looming and could be a reality next year.
The MTA on Wednesday issued a financial plan that includes an all but definite fare hike in 2017, with the aim of raising more than $300 million annually for a transit system struggling to provide reliable service.
Just how the MTA comes up with a cash infusion — tweaking MetroCard and commuter rail prices as well as bridge and tunnel tolls — is up to agency officials.
But if past fare increases are a guide, MTA officials could well suggest that the base $2.75 fare go up a quarter to $3, according to Jamison Dague of the nonprofit, Citizens Budget Commission. Raising the price of an unlimited-ride MetroCard is on the table, too.
“Usually, in all of these options, the MTA is careful to ensure that everyone has some sort of shared pain here when it comes to a fare increase,” said Dague, the commission’s director of infrastructure studies.
MTA brass stressed that the fare hike is part of a budget projection and that the forecast could change when the numbers are crunched again in November.
“That’s different than a, ‘Yes, we’re gonna have a fare increase,’ ” MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast said.
Still, a 4% fare hike kicking in this March would raise about $300 million a year on average through 2020.
On top of that, as part of its regular two-year fare increases, another spike in 2019 would reap the MTA an additional $594 million over two years.
“The biennial fare and toll increases need to be pursued,” MTA finance chief Bob Foran told agency board members Wednesday.
In 2015, the MTA pulled in $7.7 billion in fare and toll revenue, which covers half of what it costs the MTA to run its system, according to budget docs.
But after setting ridership records in 2015, business seems to have fallen off, as the system has been wracked by late trains and buses, broken equipment and overall shoddy service.
After a rosy February financial outlook, the MTA took in $182 million less from fares and tolls than officials estimated.
“The numbers indicate that maybe that rate of rise is trimming somewhat, coming back somewhat,” Prendergast said, adding that running more trains “is a challenge that we’ve got to meet and meet faster.”
Riders said last year’s fare increase is still fresh in their minds and that they’re having a tough time covering their transportation costs.
“I have a wife and kids. A little 2017 (starting in March) ............ 2018 ................................................ 2019 ................................................ 2020 ................................................
Projected revenue from a 4% fare hike in 2019:
2019 (starting in March) ............. 2020 ................................................
2015 fare hike: $2.75 11% bonus
from an for every MetroCard, up from
$277M $317M
offset by ona
5%. $116.50 $31 $30
from
$263M $310M $312M $313M
from A HOMELESS man was thinking about getting high, not being a hero, when he helped police nab an armed stoner who suggested they kill cops Wednesday at the Port Authority.
George Pugh, 46, thought he’d hit the jackpot when he saw Hunter Lee Taylor, 18, of Groveland, Fla., rolling a joint on the main concourse of the Midtown bus terminal around 3:50 p.m.
“I figured he was a mark,” Pugh said. “I went over to him to ask for a cigarette, but I didn’t want any cigarette. I was interested in his weed.”
The two struck up a conversation. Taylor said he could get weed, lots of it, and he could get guns, too, according to Pugh. Then two Port Authority cops passed by.
“I should have blown their f---ing brains out,” Pugh recounted Taylor saying. “I got my s--- with me: a .38 with hollow points.”
He thought the punk was just trying to impress him — until Taylor opened his knapsack and flashed a holstered revolver. Pugh, who is black, said current racial tensions between police and the AfricanAmerican community didn’t factor into his thinking.
“I know for a fact that if you report someone with a gun you get a reward,” he said. So Pugh said he had to go to the bathroom and buy a cigar. Instead, he made a beeline for the police.
Cops busted Taylor for pot possession. They got a search warrant and found the revolver at about 8:50 p.m., sources said. Taylor was being held at the Midtown transit hub, and charges were pending.
Pugh, who stays at Samaritan Village shelter in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, said he’s been homeless since the 2013 murder of his teen son and the deaths of his wife and infant child.
“The police told me I saved lives. It was hard for me to believe he had a real gun,” Pugh said. A RETIRED NYPD lieutenant was arrested for slashing his exwife’s neck on Staten Island, officials said Wednesday.
On Tuesday around 1 p.m., Vincent Curulli allegedly pulled his truck in front of Tricia Curulli’s car on Page Ave. outside Long Pond Park in Tottenville.
After a heated argument, Vincent Curulli, 49, allegedly raked a sharp object across his ex-wife’s neck.
This is the second time he has been charged with abusing his former spouse, also a retired cop, officials said. He was charged with misdemeanor assault and for violating an order of protection put in place after a 2014 attack.