State Senate Majority Leader Urged to Deliver MTA Rescue Plan to Stop 23 Percent Fare Hike

March 23, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Mary Barber, 646-209-9469-c, mbarber@edf.org

Sean Crowley, 202-550-6524-c, scrowley@edf.org

(New York, NY – March 23, 2009) A transit advocacy group today urged State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith “to join the parade of heroes” including State House Speaker Shelley Silver and the Ravitch Commission “and support a transit rescue plan that supports holding fares in check.” The MTA is scheduled to vote on Wednesday on a doomsday budget that would hike transit fares by 23 percent and dramatically cut transit service in the New York region.

“Our transit system is the lifeblood of our region and the force that keeps our people mobile, our economy strong, and our air clean,” said Mary Barber, managing director of Living Cities for Environmental Defense Fund in written testimony delivered during an MTA Finance Committee hearing. “The system is in financial trouble and decisions need to be made now to secure its health and vitality for the millions of people who rely on it every day.

“This defining moment has called for heroes to defend our transit system. Thankfully, there have been many. There are the hundreds and thousands of riders and commuters who have signed postcards, written letters, signed petitions and phoned their elected officials urging them to make the tough decisions to keep our transit system safe and reliable. Richard Ravitch and his commission are heroes for proposing a fair and balanced long-term plan to fund the system by asking all who benefit—riders, businesses and motorists—to contribute to its well-being.

“And now it”s Albany and our State government”s opportunity to be heroic. The governor appointed the Ravitch commission and championed the Ravitch plan. He is a transit hero because of his willingness to support some unpopular, but necessary solutions. Speaker Silver is a hero because he supports the basics of the Ravitch plan and recommended some adjustments to make it more acceptable to more legislators. And now we wait for the Senate, but where are they? Their response has been a plan that is short-term and ill-conceived and puts off for tomorrow what must be done today.

“We call on Majority Leader Smith to join the parade of heroes and make the hard choices and support a transit rescue plan that supports holding fares in check and continuing to rebuild the system for a better tomorrow.

And we look to the governor to bring all parties together and find a solution to this crisis now, not when it”s too late.”