(The following article by Pete Bowles appeared on Newsday’s website on June 10.)
NEW YORK — Attorneys for three separate organizations will gather before a five-judge appeals panel today to argue the merits – or lack of them – of transit and toll increases imposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The judges of the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan have been asked to overturn the recent rulings of two lower court judges who said the MTA misled the public when it raised transit fares and bridge tolls.
The hikes were challenged in separate lawsuits by the Straphangers Campaign and the Automobile Club of New York.
In March, state Supreme Court Justice Louis York ordered the MTA to roll back subway, bus and train fares, saying the agency had overstated its claims of financial strains.
Both the Straphangers and the auto club charged that the MTA had fudged its books, citing a finding that the agency masked $537 million in surplus funds.
The MTA board voted earlier this year to raise bus and subway fares from $1.50 to $2 and boost commuter rail fares by an average of 25 percent for the 275,000 riders of the Long Island Rail Road.
The authority later decided to raise tolls on six area bridges and two tunnels it manages – the Throgs Neck, Bronx Whitestone, Triborough, Verrazano Narrows, Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial, and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial bridges – and the Brooklyn Battery and Queens Midtown tunnels.
York said the MTA’s fare hearings “were based on the false and misleading premise that the MTA was in worse financial condition that it knew itself to be.”
In a similar ruling on June 4, state Supreme Court Justice Robert Lippman said the MTA blindsided motorists with higher bridge and tunnel tolls.
“The MTA told us they had a $2.6 billion deficit when it really had an $83 million surplus,” Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the commuter group, said yesterday.
In appealing the rulings, the MTA said its reported deficit is real and maintained that it did not hide any surplus funds.