Editorial
Toll Rulings Rap MTA Bookkeeping

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bridge and tunnel toll hike has been accorded the same treatment as its bus and subway fare increase—a rollback order from a judge. State Supreme Court Judge Robert Lippman made his June 4 ruling on the same grounds as his counterpart on the state bench, Judge Louis York, who ordered the MTA to rescind its 50-cent bus and subway fare and 25 percent commuter railroad fare increase a month earlier. According to both jurists, the MTA misled the public about the exact amount of money in its coffers. Reports from city Comptroller William Thompson and state Comptroller Alan Hevesi found that the MTA secretly moved funds into its 2003 and 2004 books to show a $236 million deficit when it could have showed an $83 million surplus--information that never saw daylight before the MTA conducted public hearings about possible fare increases. York and Lippman ruled that the public was not provided with all the information needed to constitute a fair hearing.

Straphangers and drivers now paying an additional 50 cents in tolls on the Throg’s Neck, Bronx Whitestone and Triborough Bridges and the Queens-Midtown and Brooklyn Battery Tunnels and an additional $1 on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and another 25 cents on the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial, Henry Hudson and Cross Bay-Veterans Memorial Bridges shouldn’t look for more money in their pockets just yet. The MTA immediately appealed both rulings, so the rollbacks have been put on hold. While permanent remedies for the MTA’s misconduct lie with the governor, the legislature and the [state] comptroller, not the courts, as Lippman noted in his decision, the two rulings, especially Lippman’s, serve as a strong warning to the MTA that shady bookkeeping practices can no longer be foisted off on the riding and driving public with impunity.

As the folk song "M.T.A." maintains, the fare and toll increases are, in fact, "a burdensome tax on the population," especially those portions of the population that can afford such a sub rosa tax least. Other similarly burdensome taxes have been imposed, and like the MTA hikes, cry for immediate remediation. The city and state sales tax increases that went into effect June 1, for example, will make life more difficult for many in the city, especially the middle class and the working poor, both of which make up a large portion of the population. Sales taxes were eliminated for clothing purchases under $110 during the previous mayoral administration and the city’s economy boomed. Eliminating the sales tax was not the sole reason for the city’s prosperity, but there is no denying it was a major factor. Now that the sales tax has been reimposed, New York City’s economy will receive another staggering blow. Those individuals with access to transportation will leave New York City, in some instances, the state, to make clothing purchases. Many people who of necessity shop near their New York City homes will think long and hard before making a purchase. Whatever the case, the end result is less money in the cash registers of businesses in New York City—and concomitant decreases in tax revenues.

The 18.5 percent rise in real estate taxes should have been imposed in gradual increments starting in 1991 so that property owners could budget for them without undergoing the "sticker shock" of a one-time hit. This hike will also have an extremely deleterious effect on New York City. The ultimate goal of most Americans, including those who are recent arrivals to our shores, is to own their own homes. This is a positive development for many reasons. Homeowners are more likely to take pride in their property and maintain it. Property owners with school age children are more likely to become involved with the neighborhood schools that their children attend. They will pick up litter and put out their garbage when and in the manner prescribed because they know that a clean neighborhood is a desirable neighborhood. They will support their local police in many ways, among them becoming block watchers or members of neighborhood patrols or community councils because they know that a safe neighborhood is one with rising property values. A property tax that makes owning or keeping a home difficult, if not impossible, does the city--and the people who live here--no favor.

The fare and toll hikes and the sales and property tax increases obviously will do more harm than good. The MTA owes the people who keep it in business a fair and honest accounting and a true picture of its finances before entertaining any thought of a fare or toll increase. The city owes the people who gladly pay for the privilege of living here at least an even break when taxes and water rates are due to be raised.