Budget deal includes a diminished M.T.A. diversion

[hrmjustin]

Dana Rubinstein

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority appears to be taking a $30 million hit in the state budget.

That's $10 million less than Governor Andrew Cuomo originally envisioned, but from the standpoint of transportation advocates, it's still an avoidable diversion of scarce resources from a financially fragile agency that will, if anything, serve only to increase the burden on mass transit users who are already suffering faster-than-inflation fare hikes.

Put simply: the budget diverts $30 million from the Mass Transportation Operating Assistance Fund, whose revenues come from supposedly M.T.A.-dedicated taxes.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/03/8542856/budget-deal-includes-diminished-mta-diversion?top-featured-1