Room Eight is closed to new posts. The existing archive will remain up for the immediate future.
If you were a Room Eight writer and would like access to an export of your content, please contact the editor.
This site is not affiliated with or collaborating with any other news or opinion site.
NY Observer – March 22, 2011
http://www.observer.com/2011/politics/rudys-last-gasp
On Friday evening, after a cup of broccoli soup, a plate of chicken and a few sips of red wine, Rudy Giuliani took to the stage in the ballroom of the Executive Court banquet hall and prepared to let loose.
…
In my post on a way out for the MTA, I proposed making the subway and commuter rail systems semi- self funded. They would be required to cover their costs on an “auto-equivalent” basis, with riders paying for the ongoing purchase, maintenance and operation of railcars and the collection of fares through fares – but not for tracks or stations. Motor vehicle drivers, after for comparison, pay to purchase, maintain and operate their own motor vehicles, but they drive on streets funded by general taxes (as well as highways and bridges funded by gas taxes and tolls). A simple requirement for specific costs to be covered could cure some of the dysfunctional politics that is destroying the transit system.
In my first post on a way out for the MTA, I proposed breaking up the MTA transit monopoly and settling the payroll tax controversy by turning the bus systems, and the payroll tax/taxi surcharge revenues, over to New York City and the counties. New York City and the counties would also shift their existing MTA contributions, excluding those for rail station maintenance, to their bus systems. The MTA would no longer operate buses. If the suburban counties didn’t want to keep the surcharge, fine. If they didn’t want to have buses, fine. These new transit systems would not inherit the rules of the old ones. Just the vehicles and depots. One might think, given this proposal, that I have joined the many MTA bashers. Having worked at NYC Transit twice in two different eras, I in fact know more about MTA dysfunction than most of those complaining, but I also know the agency works better than most in the public sector. My actual reasoning is as follows.
Nearly every year, judicial positions open up in Brooklyn, that require elections. All bona-fide political parties can nominate candidates. What used to happen in the past (1980’s & 1990’s especially), was that the two major contemporary political parties (Republicans and Democrats), generally made deals whereby there were trade-offs: with democrats dominating the process. This has lessened over time, but this year there is apparently some deal-making going on behind the scenes.
As I implied in my last “Vines” column: relative to the five boroughs of New York City, Brooklyn is usually where the political action's at. And sure enough, when the Daily News came with their expose on the many NYC council members (almost 20 -the last time I looked) whose ethics can be put to challenge, Brooklyn had more than just a few of their electeds represented on the “Council of Shame” list. This story broke last Sunday (3-20-2011); and that was fine; but I still have a big problem with the Daily News.
SENATOR RUBEN DIAZ, SR: I’d like to know if my colleagues in the New York State Senate – especially those who consider themselves purists – plan to do to something to Senator Kevin Parker now that he has been convicted of two misdemeanors. Will Senators Schneiderman, Breslin, Savino, Liz Kruger, and others rally for justice twice as loud as they did when Hiram Monserrate was found guilty of one misdemeanor?
I swore off suggesting solutions to New York’s state and local public policy problems some time ago, on the grounds that there is not chance that any of those suggestions would be implemented. Let’s face it, most of those in charge don’t actually think there is a problem, because things are working out very nicely for themselves and those who help keep them in office, and the damage to others is irrelevant as long as it can be deferred or blamed on someone else. And when things get really bad they can always do what con artists always do – take their pensions and skip town.
But what the hell. The financial situation of the MTA is something I happen to know a great deal about, and I don’t want to remain silent in the face of the propaganda and rationalizations that everyone in New York politics is determined to make. They should not be allowed to pretend it isn’t happening. And they shouldn’t be allowed to pretend, even now, that nothing could be done about it. So here it goes.
Query: Will Lincoln Restler and Chris Owens call for the resignation of Councilman Jumaane Williams?
"You talkin to me" Department: Hack Commissioner (you decide if the pun was intended) David Yassky will introduce the 7:45 showing of “Taxi Driver.”
Actually, I think David is more like the Albert Brooks’ character than DeNiro’s.
They are just a way for current workers and retirees to give back nothing while claiming they have sacrificed, while public services are destroyed. That's what happened in New York City in the 1970s, after all, despite Tier IV. Just ask an honest actuary writing for Governing Magazine. Two recent reports, he said, show "the obvious need to adjust pension and retirement benefits of current employees as well as new hires — a concept that until now was avoided by politicians across the country and is now a heated topic pending in several courts today." That’s because “the stock market alone cannot save today’s pension funds from the $800 billion in underfunding problems that they have accumulated from overly generous benefits increases, a decade of stock-market underperformance, and employer underfunding. To make matters worse, nearly $2 trillion of liabilities of retiree medical benefits program are almost completely unfunded.”
For his opinion as to what should be done, read the linked article.