Service Diversions 08-23-12
You can get an early jump on your weekend travel plans as I have just updated the Service Diversions for this weekend, next week & beyond in some cases.
Follow me on Twitter by looking up @TransitBlogger or clicking the button in the sidebar as I am using it a lot more! Check the diversions page daily as I update it as changes occur, diversions end, etc….
As always, have a safe & wonderful weekend.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Expanded Statement On Payroll Tax
Just a few minutes ago, the MTA released an expanded statement on yesterday’s ruling by State Supreme Court Judge Bruce Cozzens that the MTA Payroll Tax was unconstitutional. Here is what they had to say:
The MTA strongly believes that yesterday’s ruling from Nassau Supreme Court is erroneous. We will vigorously appeal it and we expect it will be overturned, since four similar Supreme Court cases making the same argument were previously dismissed.
The Payroll Mobility Tax maintains a regional transportation system that moves more than 8.5 million people every day and drives the economy of New York City, Long Island, the northern suburbs and the entire state.
Removing more than $1.2 billion in revenue from the Payroll Mobility Tax, plus hundreds of millions of dollars more from other taxes affected by yesterday’s ruling, would be catastrophic for the MTA and for the economy of New York State.
The MTA is getting its fiscal house in order. We have cut more than $700 million from our annual operating budget and eliminated 3,500 jobs. We are on track for this year’s discretionary spending to actually be lower than last year’s.
Without the Payroll Mobility Tax or another stable and reliable source of funding, the MTA would be forced to implement a combination of extreme service cuts and fare hikes. The Payroll Mobility Tax remains in effect for now, and we expect that it will survive this legal challenge.
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- Judge Finds MTA PayrollTax Unconstitutional
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S.I. SBS Riders To Get Extra Free Transfer
This past May, MTA NYC Transit announced that its popular Select Bus Service would be making its Staten Island debut in September on the S79.
To make the service even more useful for riders, the agency has announced that riders will get an extra free transfer. Ken Paulsen of the Staten Island Advance has more:
When Select Bus Service comes to the borough Sept. 2, riders along the line will benefit from an extra free transfer designed to ensure they can take advantage of the service.
The MTA confirmed the MetroCard plan Wednesday to the Advance.
Service will be increased on the S78 (Hylan Boulevard) and the S59 (Richmond Avenue) bus lines to fill in the gaps. Those riders have the option of transferring at a Select Bus Service stop.
Here’s an example of how the extra free transfer works, for a rider headed to Brooklyn on the S79 Select Bus Service route.
The rider lives closest to an S78 bus stop on Hylan Boulevard, takes that bus to the nearest S79 stop, and uses a MetroCard transfer to board the S79. The rider then takes the S79 to Bay Ridge. At that point, the rider may use a second free MetroCard transfer to ride the R subway line, or the B1, B16, B63 or B70 bus in Brooklyn.
Going home, the same transfer plan is in effect in the opposite direction. The extra transfer also applies to riders of the S59 bus who transfer to the S79 on Richmond Avenue.
Click here for the complete report.
Hopefully Select Bus Service will take off in Staten Island like it has in other boroughs. I recently noted on Twitter (follow @TransitBlogger today!) that I was impressed by the service after using it for the first time ever when I rode the M15 from the Lower East Side to Midtown one Sunday morning.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Judge Finds MTA PayrollTax Unconstitutional
Once again the MTA Payroll Tax is in the news as State Supreme Court Judge Bruce Cozzens found the tax to be unconstitutional. This was a ruling that many counties such as Nassau, Suffolk & Westchester were hoping for when they joined forces along with other towns to file a lawsuit questioning the constitutional grounds of the tax.
Let’s first take a look more at the report from Joan Gralla of Reuters:
The tax is paid by employers located within the downstate area served by the MTA, which runs New York City’s buses, subways, commuter railroads and some major bridges and tunnels.
The lawsuit was brought by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, a Republican, whose county, which lies on the western half of Long Island, is located within the taxing district.
The MTA noted that four previous lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the payroll tax had been dismissed. “We will vigorously appeal today’s ruling,” the authority’s statement said.
By limiting the tax to Nassau County, New York City, and the ring of suburban counties that lie north of the city, including Dutchess County, the legislature signaled that it was not “a substantial state concern” but instead a special law, Judge Bruce Cozzens, a state Supreme Court judge in Nassau County, said in his ruling.
The legislature was required to enact the law with a home-rule message or with a message of necessity, which requires two-thirds of the Senate and Assembly to approve the measure, Cozzens said. By failing to meet either condition, the legislature enacted the law unconstitutionally, he concluded.
“This is a great victory for every taxpayer as we buried the job-killing payroll tax that burdened every resident whether they used public transportation or not,” Mangano said in a statement.
The New York Supreme Court is the lowest of the three levels in the state. The judge did not order or direct the state to stop collecting the tax, so his ruling will not have any immediate effect.
Click here for the complete report.
Long time readers know I have never been a fan of this tax. However with that in mind, I can’t agree with the judge’s decision here. His official wording (found here) is basically spelling out the belief that the MTA itself is not a legitimate statewide concern.
Now on paper to those who are clueless or misinformed, this might be true. However if you are on the side of common sense & knowledge, one can argue that the MTA along with its infrastructure & service are the biggest economic engine for the state. One could even go as far & say the region considering how many millions from New Jersey & Connecticut benefit from it daily.
The judge’s ruling is not the end all be all of this as the MTA will strongly appeal the decision. Based on similar lawsuits over the tax that were found to be unconstitutional & later overturned, I expect the same here.
This all could have been avoided if legislators spent less time taking shots at the MTA & instead coming up with sustainable funding methods for the agency along with the protection of such funds from being used for non-MTA related programs & projects. Will we see this anytime soon? Of course not as that would be too easy…..
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- MTA Expanded Statement On Payroll Tax
- MTA Payroll Tax Case To Be Held In Nassau
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10 MTA Workers Charged With False Reports
In what is a highly disturbing story if true, 10 MTA workers have been charged with allegedly filing false reports. The false reports were for completed or supervised safety inspections. Ted Mann of the Wall Street Journal has more:
Prosecutors charged 10 Metropolitan Transit Authority employees with falsifying reports to suggest they had completed or supervised safety inspections in the New York subway system, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said Monday.
The arrests stemmed from an investigation of eight of the MTA’s signal maintainers and two supervisors, who are accused of falsely reporting that they had inspected safety equipment in the subways.
All 10 were charged with first-degree tampering with records, a felony. The two supervisors and one of the signal maintainers were also charged with official misconduct.
The false inspection reports didn’t endanger any passengers in the subway, because of the system’s design, prosecutors said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the maintainers had scanned bar codes that are normally affixed to signal equipment installed in subway tunnels to show that the equipment had been checked. But in the alleged scheme, the bar codes were stored in one employee’s locker, not on the signals themselves, prosecutors said.
In a statement, Transport Workers Union Local 100 leaders said the signal workers were made “scapegoats” for the failures of their MTA managers, and said the union will pay the eight maintainers’ legal expenses.. “During the period of this investigation, our members were under tremendous management pressure to maintain 100 percent performance of what management knew was an impossible performance goal,” the statement said. “Our Signal Maintainers gained no financial benefit, or advantage of any kind by completing these unrealistic workloads, and submitting the reports demanded by management.”
MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz called the TWU’s allegations against management “utter nonsense” and said the union “has failed to offer the slightest bit of evidence to the public or to prosecutors to back up its claims.”
Click here for the complete report.
This report had me absolutely fuming. While the prosecutors claim passengers were never in danger, how can we really be 100% sure of that? Let’s face it, a lot of the infrastructure is outdated & it does not help that some workers allegedly faked inspections of it.
The Transport Workers Union Local 100 response sure opened Pandora’s box as are their claims of impossible metrics true? If so, does that justify the alleged actions of their members? My answer to that is no as even if it is true, bad management is not an excuse to potentially endanger the lives of others. I will keep an eye on this story in the coming weeks.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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