Dear Mr. Brodsky: What Now?

In today’s Times, Richard Brodsky weighs in on the pitfalls of shortchanging capital needs in the face of the immediate MTA budget crisis.

“The need for investment in the system is gargantuan,” said Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky,
a Democrat from Westchester County who is chairman of a committee that
oversees the authority. “Twenty-five years from now what we do on the
capital plan will resonate much more loudly than what the debate is
going to be about fare increases.”

“It would be a terrible mistake to take whatever resources may be
available and use them all on the operating side,” Mr. Brodsky said.

The key words here: “whatever resources may be available.” As the MTA contemplates eliminating bus routes and subway lines in addition to raising fares, we have not yet heard a proposed solution from Brodsky, who promised Streetsblog in April that he and his colleagues, having killed congestion pricing, would “continue … good faith efforts to deal with the real problems of congestion and mass transit funding.”

We have a message in with Brodsky’s office in hopes of getting his views on potential service cuts, fare hikes, and the possibility that the Ravitch Commission will recommend measures that he has opposed in the past, including congestion pricing.