MTA poised to vote on 7% toll increase on bridges and tunnels in Thursday board meeting

[Aeran]

‘Hard, ugly choices’: MTA still needs more funds after federal COVID aid runs out.
The MTA is akin to a bottomless pit.

https://www.amny.com/news/hard-ugly-...-aid-runs-out/

Governor Kathy Hochul may have postponed a fare hike until mid-2022, but the Metropolitan Transportation Authority still has to find new funding streams to make up billion-dollar deficits when federal COVID-19 relief dries up in four years, the agency’s financial guru warned Wednesday.

“We really still are structurally out of balance and we have to look at those hard ugly choices of things that may have to be done,” said MTA Chief Financial Officer Bob Foran at the agency’s monthly board meeting on Nov. 17.

Foran briefed the agency’s 21-member board on an updated financial plan for the mass transit agency, showing that $14.5 billion in pandemic support money from Washington will keep the MTA’s finances above water, along with 4% fare and toll hikes in 2022, 2023, and 2025.

But in 2025 the agency faces a $1.4 billion hole even with higher farebox revenues and federal funds, and Foran urged officials to find new sources of funding...

[Aeran]

After Six-Month Reprieve, MTA Could Decide On Higher Fares In 2022.
But, of course.

https://gothamist.com/news/mta-could...ntent=20211118

Thanks to funding from the CARES Act and several other federal relief programs, the agency appears to have secured enough money to balance its budget through 2025. But after that, “there remains a very substantial structural deficit in our budget, lurking just over the horizon,” Lieber said Wednesday.

The MTA’s deputy financial officer presented the board with several options for raising enough revenue to balance the budget after the federal funds run out. It includes raising fares in mid-2022, and again in 2023 and 2025 at the typical rate of 4%.

This could put a single subway ride at about $3 by 2025 (compared to $2.75 now).

MTA leadership insisted Wednesday that holding off six months before deciding whether to raise fares was a “business decision,” about bringing back more riders, and was not driven by politics. The gubernatorial primary—which already features Hochul, NY Attorney General Letitia James, and NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams vying for the Democratic nomination—is next June.

“When there’s $90 million at stake, and the scale of the MTA’s budget, it is not worth it to us to take chances with the motivations for riders to come back, and that’s our priority,” Lieber said.