NYC has one of the highest combined state/city tax rates.. what the heck are we paying for, if not convenient, reliable subways. and they dare increase the fares.. ok that is fine IF you decrease the tax rates. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
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Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#12“17% of the budget is to pay down debt”
That's almost entirely just to pay the interest on the debt, they're not actually trying to reduce the debt itself.
See the first NYT article:
> Every second of every day, the M.T.A. pays $83 in interest. That’s $7.1 million in 24 hours; for the year, a total of $2.603 billion. Those costs consume 16 percent of the transit agency’s budget, nearly three times as much as in 2002, according to the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/nyregion/subway-new-yo...
Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#13NYC has one of the highest combined state/city tax rates.. what the heck are we paying for, if not convenient, reliable subways. and they dare increase the fares.. ok that is fine IF you decrease the tax rates. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
You’re paying for guys who tear up the same street all day, every day, for years, and then leave it looking like a patchwork of sloppy, half-finished jobs. I lived on that street for ten years.
Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#14NYC has one of the highest combined state/city tax rates.. what the heck are we paying for, if not convenient, reliable subways. and they dare increase the fares.. ok that is fine IF you decrease the tax rates. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
billions debt service on MTA bonds, a Cuomo directed bail out of Ski resorts. These are the things our taxes and subway fares go towards...
Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#15I take the subway almost everyday since the past 7 years and its been getting worse. NYC should learn something from Toronto and London. They have the best subway systems IMHO.
If you think London is good, wait til you try the subway in big Asian cities like Taipei, Tokyo, or Seoul.
Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#16NYC has one of the highest combined state/city tax rates.. what the heck are we paying for, if not convenient, reliable subways. and they dare increase the fares.. ok that is fine IF you decrease the tax rates. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
You’re paying for guys who tear up the same street all day, every day, for years, and then leave it looking like a patchwork of sloppy, half-finished jobs. I lived on that street for ten years.
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Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#17[deleted]
Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#18“17% of the budget is to pay down debt”
Is that bad? The real problem is when you're stuck only paying the interest, and the debt increases. If you were to buy something on your credit card, you're spending most of your money to pay down the debt - but that's not particularly a problem unless you're living above your means. The alternative - to wait until you've accumulated enough cash to build a bus depot - seems kind of a bad idea.
> The real problem is when you're stuck only paying the interest, and the debt increases.
That is what is happening at the MTA.
Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#19I take the subway almost everyday since the past 7 years and its been getting worse. NYC should learn something from Toronto and London. They have the best subway systems IMHO.
Everyone in Toronto loves to complain about the TTC, but the few lines we have here are pretty reliable.
We just need to expand the system further. The Eglinton line and the Finch LRT will help.
Re: How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
#20The MTA is a government mandated monopoly. What they need is free enterprise.