Good evening Chairman Walder and members of the MTA panel. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

In good times, when we have the luxury of planning for the expansion and modernization of mass transit, it’s essential that we plan for a future that serves the interests of all the system’s users. But in tough times, like those we are living through now, it’s even more important to maintain a citywide perspective.

Because when subway and bus service is cut, New York City’s families suffer. And during a recession of this magnitude, no family’s burden should be taken lightly.

You are familiar, I know, with the public outcry sparked by the proposal to eliminate funding for Student MetroCards. Since the announcement of this outrageous budget cut, my office has collected 17,179 petitions calling on the MTA to include funding for student MetroCards in its 2010 budget.

In any other city, if parents were told that they were going to have to pay an extra $90 per month for school busses, they wouldn’t stand for it and we’re certainly not going to stand for a similar proposal here in New York.

Beyond the student MetroCard issue, the MTA has proposed to change certain Access-a-Ride routes from door-to-door service to a feeder service that would require some riders to be dropped off at bus stops and subway stations. This proposal is a terrible idea. 

It is counter-intuitive to require bus and subway trips for people with disabilities who may be using the service because they cannot access public bus or subway service. Whatever the projected cost savings from this particular service cut, they are not proportionate to the hardship that will be created. Access-a-Ride patrons and their medical practitioners should be the only parties responsible for determining a person’s fitness for travel on traditional or modified MTA services, not MTA personnel.      

But I didn’t come here just to criticize the MTA for proposed service cuts and fare hikes. Our mass transportation system is the life blood of our city, and we need to find a way to make it financially viable. 

First and foremost, we need to reinstate the commuter tax. 

I know that it’s out of fashion to talk about the commuter tax, and that many think any effort to reinstate it is politically unrealistic. But let’s not forget that many of the MTA’s current problems started with the commuter tax repeal in 1999.

People who commute from the suburbs – and whose livelihoods depend on the continued success of New York City – must contribute to reducing the MTA’s budget deficit so that New York City residents can get to their jobs, too. The revenue from a reinstated commuter tax could be as much as half a billion dollars every year.  

Second, all of New York’s elected officials should join with the MTA to secure our full share of federal stimulus money that is available to support mass transit. But in seeking this federal support, we need to learn the lessons of the past.

Back in the 1970s, we were too quick to resort to budget gimmicks that borrowed from our future. Today, regardless of availability of one-time exceptions that would allow us to transfer capital funds to the operating side of the MTA budget, let’s not make that same mistake again.  

I don’t need to tell this panel that there are more than enough urgent capital expenditures confronting the MTA. Tending to those needs lessens the overall budget pressures on the Authority, and we should use capital funding for that purpose.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify here tonight.