MTA

This spring, there was a glimmer of hope that Webster Avenue in the Bronx would get the first center-running bus-only lanes in New York. With NYC DOT and the MTA bringing Select Bus Service to Webster Avenue, the center-running option would have been the city's boldest effort yet to implement high-quality bus rapid transit. While Select Bus Service is still in the works for Webster Avenue and bus trips are on track to improve, the project won't include center-running lanes, which do more to keep buses moving smoothly through traffic than bus lanes next to the curb or the parking lane.

Since the beginning of 2008 -- right around the time that Albany legislators failed to enact congestion pricing -- NYC subway and bus fares have been hiked three times. Now the fourth fare hike in five years is on the horizon, and with Albany lawmakers sitting on their hands as MTA revenues fail to keep up with costs, there's no relief in sight for millions of transit-riding New Yorkers.

Mayor Bloomberg, NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota this morning announced a long-anticipated plan for Select Bus Service to LaGuardia Airport, which should speed travel times to and from neighborhoods in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens while improving service for local transit users.

A new report [PDF] from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says that the MTA budget picture is slowly improving as tax collections and ridership increase with a recovering economy, but that won't protect straphangers from big fare hikes.

Three candidates vying for the 72nd State Assembly District seat, representing parts of Washington Heights and Inwood, discussed transit issues and the state of MTA service last night at a forum sponsored by WE ACT for Environmental Justice and Transport Workers Union Local 100.

On Wednesday, a state Supreme Court judge ruled the Payroll Mobility Tax unconstitutional, saying that because the "budgetary crisis of the MTA is not a substantial state concern," the law required a home rule message from the affected counties. Now, the MTA says it will appeal directly to New York's top court.

Saying that the “budgetary crisis of the MTA is not a substantial state concern," a state Supreme Court judge ruled yesterday that the MTA Payroll Mobility Tax is unconstitutional. Although taxes will continue to be collected as the MTA appeals the case to a higher court, yesterday’s decision puts $1.5 billion, or approximately 12 percent of the MTA’s annual budget, at risk.

Well, this is just crazy. A State Supreme Court judge has ruled that the MTA payroll mobility tax, which collects more than a billion dollars a year to keep the NYC region's transit system running, was enacted in a way that violated the state constitution. The payroll tax was passed in 2009 to avert devastating service cuts. It initially collected 34 cents for every $100 of employers' payroll in the 12-county MTA region, but the tax was rolled back substantially by the state legislature and the Cuomo administration in 2011.

Wondering how the MTA could afford to restore service on 24 bus lines and postpone next year's fare hikes? New budget documents show where the transit system's revenues and costs beat expectations, leaving the small and fragile surplus. The biggest savings came from cheap energy. Revenues from riders were up, but the important yet volatile real estate transaction tax came in under expectations.