Former MTA Construction Chief Urges 'Holistic' Approach to Funding Woes

By Adam Klasfeld

As the construction industry’s chief representative on Governor David Paterson’s hand-picked committee to develop strategies for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital projects, the former head of the agency’s construction arm is confident the Ravitch Commisions proposals are the long-term solution the beleaguered MTA has been looking for.

Mysore Nagaraja

“It’s not a one-time fix.  It’s a fix forever,” explains Mysore Nagaraja, who retired from the MTA last year and now works as a consultant.. 

The Commission proposed to resolve the MTA’s financial problems by creating two new sources of revenue: a Regional Mobility tax forcing employers to pay 33 cents for every $100 of payroll and cashless tolling on all East River and Harlem River Bridges.

According to the Commision’s report, the nominal Mobility tax will generate $1.5 billion per year, and the tolls will bring in an additional $600 million annually.  Nagaraja believes this will be enough not only to keep all of the existing train lines in a state of good repair, but also to keep all of the MTA’s expansion projects on schedule.

As President of the Capital Construction Company, Nagaraja conceived and spearheaded projects like the Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access and the extension of the 7 line.  So he is particularly happy to point out that one year of the Mobility Tax will raise enough revenue to complete the Second Avenue Subway, which currently needs $1.2 billion.

Fares for subway riders will still increase under the plan, but the smaller and more predictable hikes will be set to fixed rates and schedules.  Nagaraja says the MTA is currently mulling 23% increases, and only an 8% hike would be needed under the Ravitch Commissions proposals.

Governor Paterson recently endorsed the measures in his State of the State Address.  However, they still need to pass legislation in City Council as well as Albany, and many lawmakers representing areas affected by the new tolls feel the holistic cure is not the right medicine for their constituents.

“This pricing strategy may encourage the casual motorist to use public transportation,” Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Carl Hum testified before City Council.  “However, for some, such a choice does not exist.  It is difficult to deliver… trays of freshly-baked bagels from Flatlands/Fairfield to a business conference in Midtown using [subways].”

“Commuters are strapped and to ask them to come up with more isn’t the right move,” says Scott Rief, a spokesman for Nassau County Senator Dean Skelos.  He said that he is looking for “creative” alternatives to fund the MTA, but he would not go into greater detail.

Another opponent of the measures is Suffolk County Senator Jim Flanagan, who serves as Chair of the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions.  He worried that the one-third of one percent payroll tax would start down a slippery slope toward a more “onerous” tax.  

“The prospect of raising taxes during an economic is an extraordinarily bad idea,” he said. 

He believes that President-elect Obama’s economic stimulus plan, which Senator Schumer recently announced could be as high as $18 billion, will resolve the MTA’s financial problems. 

“I believe we’re going to get help from the federal government,” Flanagan says.

Nagaraja admits that the report did not take Obama’s potential stimulus package into account, and if passed, it could provide enough funding to rescue the MTA – until its next financial crisis.

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