Plan to fund subway fixup
ALBANY — A portion of New York City’s sales tax revenue would be snatched by the state and used to pay for emergency subway repairs under a plan being proposed by a key group of state senators, the Daily News has learned.
The Independent Democratic Conference on Thursday will call for the state to divert $431.5 million from the city’s annual sales tax revenue and use it to cover the city’s share of repair costs under the turnaround plan proposed in July by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joe Lhota.
“It’s money that is needed right now,” said Bronx Sen. Jeffrey Klein, leader of the IDC.
Mayor de Blasio has so far refused demands from Lhota and Gov. Cuomo, who controls the agency, to pay for half of the $863 million turnaround plan, arguing that previous state raids on MTA finances were to blame for the agency’s lack of repair funds.
Klein said the IDC’s plan was fair to the city, noting that the city collects a whopping $7 billion a year from sales taxes and benefits from a functioning transit system.
The diversion of sales tax revenue is part of a two-part “Rider Relief Plan” that Klein’s controversial group will unveil to boost resources for the cash-strapped MTA.
A second component would expand use of speed enforcement cameras in the city and use the revenue they generate to hold subway and bus fares flat through 2019, discount MetroCards for poor city residents, and slash express bus fares in half.
Currently limited to 140 school zones, the IDC would allow speed cameras near all schools, raising as much as $500 million annually.
De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips slammed the IDC’s proposal.
“Rather than divert money from our schools and police, the state should return to our subways the $450 million it’s diverted from the MTA,” Phillips said. “Then we should pass a millionaires’ tax to sustain the system.”
A Cuomo spokesman said the governor had not seen the IDC’s plan but was awaiting the recommendations of his own “Fix NYC” panel, which he formed to study traffic congestion and the MTA’s funding woes.