When and where do we draw the line

If only for the kids, when and where do we as New Yorkers take an active stance in showing the MTA that unilateral cost cutting and the servitude to select interests has to stop somewhere. Have you taken a look at your cell phone bill lately? If you live in NYC, you will see an oddly labeled  tax item that references a tax levied by the State on behalf of the MTA that generates money for the MTA. And it’s not just your telecommunications companies that are being used as tax proxies, the TLC was commissioned to charge an extra 50 cents to all passengers using NYC taxi cabs  that makes it way back to the MTA. As regular passengers, we have been subjected to a series of rate hikes over the past 5 yrs. And if that is not enough, there is now a proposal on the table to begin phasing out the fully subsidized “student” fare cards distributed to all New York city students, beginning in 2010. In truth, this is yet another tax on the very same group that is already shouldering the majority of the cost of these other creative tax mechanisms for which the MTA is the sole beneficiary. The parents of these children who send their kids off to school to learn and prepare to be come educated, fine, upstanding, tax paying citizens, are being given yet another disincentive to be all they can be. Alternatively, if the parents can’t afford the extra cost, these students will have to take up part time jobs, as either professional turnstile jumpers or clerks at McDonald’s, just to afford the cost of transportation to and from school, five days a week for at least 35 weeks of each year, which if you do some rough math amounts to $780 (if the subsidy is entirely removed). The surest way for the MTA to see that enough is enough, we as New Yorkers, have to demonstrate that we are capable of functioning without being completely dependent on the MTA for all of our travel requirements — we have to come up with alternative, cost effective ways of getting around the city. Cab sharing is a viable conduit through which we can voice our distaste for being used as a pocket book for those at the MTA, who apparently can’t find another way to balance their budget, which is admittedly a very large, vital and complex issue.  And this is all happening along side more service cuts.  So let me get this straight…we are being asked to pay more for a system that is reducing its service and because we are wholly dependent on this transportation structure, we can be told to bend over and accept whatever costs they force upon us. Sounds about right to me, Mario.

Let’s alleviate some of the dependence and financial stress of having to simply swallow whatever the MTA chooses to feed us, by showing them that we are resourceful and in great enough numbers, capable of shifting to other transportation networks that will provide us with a more cost effective and convenient mode of transportation.