MTA ‘doomsday’ scenario averted as Gov. Paterson, legislature reach deal

By Glenn Blain and Pete Donohue

Doomsday derailed!

Gov. Paterson and state legislative leaders agreed Tuesday night on a transit-funding plan eliminating the need for sky-high fare hikes and deep service cuts, officials said.

The bailout, which could be adopted through legislation as soon as Wednesday, includes an employer-paid payroll tax, a 50-cent surcharge on taxi trips and other measures to fund the subway, bus and commuter train system.

“Halleluiah,” Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said. “It’s great news for subway, bus and commuter rail riders.”

The deal also provides two-years worth of funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s next five-year capital program starting next year.

That program includes basic maintenance and upgrades to tracks, signals and other equipment.

“We have rescued this system from the brink of the abyss,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said.

Facing massive – and ballooning – deficits, the MTA had scheduled fare hikes up to 30% to hit straphangers May 1, and commuter train riders the next day.

A monthly MetroCard was set to rise from $81 to an eye-popping $103.

The deal, announced in Albany by Paterson, Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), calls for more modest hikes raising fare and toll revenues by 10%, officials said. A monthly MetroCard now will likely be priced at about $89.

The one-way cash subway and bus fare, now $2, is expected to increase to $2.25 – not $2.50.

The deal signals an end to the roller coaster ride straphangers have been on for nearly a year with a series of MTA budget proposals, hearings, cost-cutting plans and ballooning deficits as the recession continued to depress tax revenues.

The MTA will not have to enact such Draconian cuts leading to the elimination of more than two dozen local bus routes, longer waits for subway trains and the overnight shuttering of a few stations it authorized earlier this year.

“This has been very difficult for the commuters of the MTA region,” Paterson said. “We can assure them this evening there will be no surprises. There will be no further cuts or fears about fare hikes or toll increases.”

A state commission headed by former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch released a transit-funding plan in December that included the payroll tax and tolls on East and Harlem river bridges.

Some senate Democrats opposed tolls, stalling the rescue effort. The plan agreed to Tuesday does not include tolling the free bridges.

Smith called it “victory for the public” that the Senate stood firm against tolls.

Democrats have a 32-30 majority in the Senate and need every Democrat to vote for the rescue plan in the face of unified Republian opposition.

Transit officials have said that they would likely push back the May 31 and June 1 fare-hikes to do the computer programing and other necessary work to implement the scaled-back increases.

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