Squeezed between rising costs and declining public aid, the MTA is calling for another round of fare hikes to close the gap.

With riders already paying more than their fair share, and the cost of living in New York skyrocketing, we need more city and state aid for public transportation – otherwise, transit riders will be left to pick up the tab.

Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg oppose the fare hikes, but they need to hear from you: with adequate funding for mass transit, we can Halt the Hike!

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A new report from NYC’s Independent Budget Office notes that City and State aid to the MTA has flatlined since 1990, and the agency now has to rely on fares and tolls to keep the system running. It’s more confirmation of what we already know: without new aid from City Hall and Albany, fare hikes are guaranteed. From the New York Times:

State and city subsidies to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have remained largely flat since 1990, exacerbating the authority’s fiscal pressures at a time when it is threatening to raise fares and facing steep deficits because of the turbulence in the real estate market, according to a new report.

The three-page report [pdf], released by the city’s Independent Budget Office, did not make any policy recommendations, but it suggested that the intense news coverage of the authority’s troubled finances has largely overlooked the issue of government subsidies.

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Haltthehike.org was featured today in the Daily News:

New battle launched to freeze subway fare

BY PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, August 4th 2008, 10:06 PM

Foes of the fare hikes that went into effect this year are reactivating their “Halt the Hike” battle cry.

The Working Families Party and Straphangers Campaign want to rally commuters against MTA plans to raise MetroCard and other fares next year.

The groups, which plan to go to stations citywide, have reopened the www.haltthehike.org Web site and are urging the public to send e-mails to Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg.

“New York exists because of a good transit system and you can’t just have the riders carrying the full freight because the whole society depends on it,” said Dan Cantor, Working Families Party executive director.

The Daily News launched a “halt the hike” newspaper campaign in October, while advocates launched parallel efforts. In November, then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer directed the MTA to scale back the planned increases and keep the $2 base bus and subway fare stable - but MetroCard prices rose.

STATEMENT ON MTA FINANCES
Gene Russianoff, NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campain

July 23, 2008

Today, the MTA officially announces a whopping deficit for 2009, caused in large part by declining tax revenues in a bad economy, rising fuel costs and the impact of years of massive borrowing to finance repairs.

As a result, the MTA is considering a fare hike for the second year in a row, back-to-back increases that have occurred only once before in the 104 year history of the system. And that with riders already paying much more of New York City Transit’s expenses than any other system in America.

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The New York Times and the Daily News both get it: starved for funding from Albany and City Hall alike, public transportation is in crisis – and transit riders shouldn’t have to carry the burden.

From the Times:

The M.T.A. budget shortfall has ballooned from $200 million to $900 million in recent months, mainly because of the rising cost of fuel, falling tax revenues and debt servicing.

…

Unfortunately, the authority is getting little sympathy or help. The mayor’s office has said there is no money for the M.T.A., and it told the authority to tighten its belt. Gov. David Paterson bemoaned the burden on riders and urged his authority to “take another look at their books.” Rechecking the math won’t change much.

New York City’s riders already pay a larger share of their mass-transit budget than riders in other cities. Albany has shortchanged the system for years, leaving the M.T.A. far too dependent on tax revenues that have fallen sharply as the economy has worsened.

From the Daily News:

Enough with transit fare hikes that drop out of the blue.

Enough with worthless promises that hikes will be kept in line with inflation and eased in every two years.

Enough with governors, mayors and lawmakers decrying fare hikes while denying the MTA adequate funding to avoid them.

This is the year that New York must rescue mass transit - and in the process play fair with riders. This is the year Gov. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Mayor Bloomberg must forge a comprehensive strategy for the sustained well-being of regional transportation.

Not a patchwork to get through the coming months.

Not a menu of fixes that leaves the riders exactly where they are now - on the hook for paying up as the system spirals down.