Bill’s off-track bet
After months of stalling with all the predictability of a rush-hour No. 1 train, Mayor de Blasio crossed a crucial threshold on Monday by finally admitting the agonizingly obvious: A mass transit system in crisis desperately needs more money from the city it serves. Trouble is, the funding de Blasio promises, via an increased tax on the city’s biggest earners, is of no help now — and will probably never materialize.
The mayor, ever the operative, knows as much. But why actually solve a problem when you have a killer election-year political card to play?
As New Yorkers battle delays, breakdowns, derailments and more, MTA Chair Joe Lhota has put on the table a solid list of short-term fixes. They demand money right away, about $800 million.
Gov. Cuomo, the guy who actually runs the subways and buses, has ponied up half. De Blasio, whose city owns and depends on the system, owes his own share, which is well within reach given an $85 billion city budget that has rapidly risen under his watch and, as of today, is in balance.
Instead, he offers symbolism: the crowd-pleasing pledge to nudge up city income taxes about one half of 1%, to 4.41%, on the ultra-wealthy — individuals earning more than half a million dollars a year and couples earning more than a million.
If that idea sounds familiar, it’s because it’s because de Blasio tried it before when he sought funds in 2014 to launch universal pre-K, only to get roundly rebuffed by the lawmakers in Albany who control the city’s tax powers.
His chances of getting the tax bump this time around, just months after barely securing renewal of a 4% surcharge on the rich, are only slightly better than the subway fairy coming to the rescue.
Which makes his proposal to devote the expected $700 million a year to subway and bus upgrades, and — thanks, mayor — to half-price fares for the poor nothing more than a cheap tease.
Cuomo is the senior partner in the state-city partnership that is the MTA. It was he who largely stood on the sidelines while the system went steeply downhill. It was he who raided more than $400 million over a number of years in what was supposed to be dedicated transit funding.
But the city owns the infrastructure and pays too little toward capital costs; Cuomo has invested billions. And over many years, City Hall has shortchanged the MTA on the costs of discount MetroCards for students, seniors and more.
There are no heroes here. But enough looking back. Righteous indignation won’t pay the bills or stop riders’ daily suffering. Only cash will.
And even if one forgives de Blasio for refusing to lift a finger in the subways’ moment of need, even if you accept that a new cash flow for the future is all that’s needed, there’s this: De Blasio’s picked the wrong revenue source.
For a decade, New York has weighed congestion pricing on motorists, most promisingly the MOVE NY plan to toll the untolled East River bridges, lower tolls on the tolled crossings — and devote the proceeds to mass transit.
Cuomo’s inching closer to the cause, but his courage remains in short supply. De Blasio’s is nonexistent; he continues to dismiss congestion pricing as a “nonstarter.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to have grownups driving this train?