Saving the subway, again

As former MTA chairman and lieutenant governor Dick Ravitch correctly wrote here last Monday, the lifeblood of the city, the subway, needs a new permanent source of revenue to make up for lost fares of the millions of passengers who stopped riding regularly since COVID struck. Two days later, Gov. Hochul, in presenting her budget plan, did exactly that by proposing new income streams for transit.

Hochul recognizes that New York is stuck at about 60% of pre-COVID subway ridership. We know plenty of people who used to buy 30-day MetroCards for $127 monthly but haven’t bought one in three years. That’s $1,500 a year the MTA isn’t getting from each person who now works from home.

In 2019, the annual subway farebox was $3.6 billion. This year, with the economy fully reengaged, the forecast is $2.6 billion. That missing $1 billion has been made up by federal COVID aid, but cash from the feds is drying up.

In 1981, when Ravitch was MTA chair, Albany approved a spate of dedicated transit taxes, including the mortgage recording tax, the real property transfer tax and a tiny piece of the sales tax. In 2009, the year he became LG, Ravitch proposed a payroll tax, which was adopted.

Hochul wants to tick up the payroll tax, from 0.34% to 0.5%, and also use money from three possible future casinos. Yes to the payroll tax and no to gambling on speculative casinos, of which Hochul even said, “if there are any.” Public funding of transit should be broad based, so better to adjust the payroll tax and the sales tax and the other levies than rely on gambling addicts who make up too much of the house’s take.

The governor also wants MTA Chair Janno Lieber to find $400 million in annual savings. With labor covering 60% of costs, look for more than that, like one person train operation, used almost everywhere else in the world instead of two crew members per train. And end granting each employee a paid holiday on their birthdays.