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amNewYork's money-saving ideas

By Matthew Sweeney, amNewYork Staff Writer | msweeney@am-ny.com

June 24, 2008

A special commission formed by the governor to find a way to fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will be looking at almost everything but the kitchen sink as a source of money.

The requirements for funding sources are that the money comes from a stable stream and that there be a lot of it.

amNewYork has gathered some ideas from elected officials, transportation experts and riders themselves that may not entirely solve the MTA's budget woes but could surely make a dent.

- Sell real estate. A group of City Council members has suggested the MTA sell a number of its buildings, saying they are underutilized. The MTA already has sold the Hudson Rail Yards for just more than $1 billion. The agency, however, is weary of selling more. "It's a terrible public policy to sell a capital asset to pay for operating expenses," said Jeremy Soffin, MTA spokesman.

- Adopt-a-station. They do it for highways, why not for stations? Selling naming rights to stations also comes up frequently. Currently, the MTA takes in more than $100 million in ad revenue throughout its transit systems. A few stations sponsored by the likes of McDonalds, Disney, or Kmart, are not going to scratch the $15 to $20 billion deficit expected in the 2010-14 capital budget, transportation experts said. In the short term, however, money is money.

- The city and the state to the rescue. City Comptroller Bill Thompson suggested last year the state and city increase their levels of direct annual funding from $190 million apiece. With increasingly ridership throughout the transit system, it is reasonable to expect Albany and City Hall to increase their contributions, which have remained at the same level since 1994. The problem lies in that the current fiscal downturn has also affected local government, so there's not much more to go around.

- A penny saved is a penny earned. Gene Russianoff, lead attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, has endorsed the creation of an independent budget watchdog to oversee the MTA and protect against fiscal waste. A bill has been sitting in Albany with a form of this proposal. It's ability to pass remains subject to resolving political disputes.

- Congestion pricing, redux. Theodore Kheel, a prominent labor mediator and transit advocate, has long pushed for free transit funded by congestion pricing that would charge roughly $16 per driver to enter Manhattan. The revenue would have to be enough to cover the influx of new riders drawn by a free ride. Kheel, 93, said the idea is not as radical as it might seem, if one considers that taxes pay entirely for police and fire departments, which are massive and expensive operations.