Former MTA chief Richard Ravitch stood with Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg this morning to discuss details of his commission's plan to keep the cash-starved MTA afloat both in the short-term and in years to come. Streetsblog's Ben Fried attended the news conference and will have more later. For now, here are a few highlights:
- The Ravitch plan would bring a "mobility tax" of 33 cents per $100 that would be levied on payrolls across the region, expected to raise $1.5 billion annually.
- As expected, the proposals include tolls on East River and Harlem River bridges, projected to bring in net revenues of $600 million per year.
- Ravitch described the plan, to be translated into legislation immediately by the governor's office, as "a major stimulus bill for New York State," which would generate up to $15 billion in wages.
- The plan recommends the MTA be allowed to impose fare increases not more than every two years, pegged at the rate of inflation, without public hearings.
- Ravitch described his commission's work as "an effort to spread the burden among the largest group that one possibly can."
- Governor Paterson expressed full support for the recommendations. Echoing Ravitch, Paterson described the proposals as "holistic." Said the governor: "The ways in which responsibility may have been shirked, or ignored, in the past, to live for another day -- that day has come, and we're going to have to make those tough choices."
- Oddly, perhaps, MTA head Lee Sander did not participate in the announcement.
