(The following story by Steve Ritea appeared on the Newsday website on March 25.)
NEW YORK — Just three weeks after MTA Chief Elliot Sander promised service improvements on the Long Island Rail Road, subways and other agencies, poor real estate tax revenues have potentially shelved those proposals, officials said yesterday.
While the tax revenue was $18.4 million over budget in January, the latest figures from this month show real estate taxes under budget by $31.5 million. The MTA relies in part on revenue from real estate taxes to fund its operations.
“It’s a very volatile and unpredictable market,” said Gary Dellaverson, finance chief for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The LIRR promised improvements had included adding peak-hour trains, including a morning train from Farmingdale, and evening trains to Farmingdale, Hicksville and Far Rockaway in the fall.
Sander announced the improvements at the first ever State of the MTA speech on March 3. The MTA board was expected, in turn, to approve them this week.
Each agency within the MTA — including city subways, Metro-North and LIRR — had been asked to submit a list of service improvements that would be implemented if revenue was high enough to fund the $30 million initiative.
But at a meeting of the board’s finance committee Monday, Dellaverson said it will now wait until June to make a decision on the service improvements, giving the MTA more time to monitor revenue.
LIRR finance chief Mark Young said the additional trains were originally expected to begin service in early fall, but delaying the decision until June could put off the new service until November or even January.
Several months of planning is required before new trains can be worked into rush-hour schedules, Young said.
If the real estate tax revenue doesn’t recover, there might not be any improvements at all, officials said.
The LIRR has already implemented some other improvements, like adding cars to some rush-hour trains.
On city subways, the improvements were to include increasing evening service on the 6 and 1 trains this summer as well as extending weekday service on the B and W trains until 11 p.m., among other things. How long those could be delayed, if they take effect at all, was unclear Monday.