(The following article by Glenn Thrush and Joshua Robin appeared in Newsday on April 25.)
NEW YORK — Gov. George Pataki acknowledged last night that he knew the MTA was saving hundreds of millions of dollars in a debt restructuring plan at the same time it was priming straphangers for the largest fare hike in state history with a bleak picture of its finances.
“The fact that the MTA saved hundreds of millions of dollars by restructuring its debt was something that was authorized by the Legislature and certainly I was aware of it,” Pataki told reporters in Brooklyn.
“I think the entire Legislature knew – or they should have known – that the MTA was going to be refinancing and restructuring their debt and that it would result in significant savings.”
The state assemblyman who chairs the committee that oversees the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that while he and other legislators knew about the broad refinancing plan, he didn’t know the agency was going to put the money into a reserve fund instead of using it to offset a fare increase.
“The people who were watching it closely did not know about it [shifting the saved money to reserves],” said Assemb. Richard Brodsky (D-Hartsdale). “Apparently, the governor did know about it, did approve of it.”
An MTA spokesman, Tom Kelly, said the agency will not revisit the fare hike, which bumps subway and bus fares to $2 from $1.50 on May 4 and raises commuter rail fares by an average of 25 percent on May 1.
The MTA board stood behind its March 6 decision to raise the fares, board members said. Even the sole person objecting to the hike last month, non-voting board member Andrew Albert, said he didn’t feel the MTA duped him with phony figures.
“I don’t believe that there were two sets of books,” he said. But he added of the MTA: “They should probably do a better job of stating their case to the public, and I think they are going to do that.”
Questions of the MTA’s bookkeeping were raised Wednesday as State Comptroller Alan Hevesi and City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. released audits concluding the agency shielded funds to trumpet its deficit and win support for the fare hike.
Pataki would not say whether he believes the board should reconsider the decision, leaving it to MTA leadership.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave his blessing to the increase, while chiding the MTA for giving New Yorkers a blurry presentation.
“I think they could have presented the information more clearly and taken the initiative in putting the information out,” Bloomberg said. “From what I’ve read, the MTA does need a fare increase.”
It was the first time Bloomberg publicly criticized the MTA, an agency run largely by Pataki, a fellow Republican. Last year, the mayor expressed sympathy for the MTA as it contemplated the hike, saying he understands its plight from his own city budget experience.
Bloomberg said the MTA’s long-term fiscal problems made the hike a “prudent” move – and that critics shouldn’t “yell and scream” about the decision.