| Subject: VOTE NO TO CONTRACT |
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SOLDIERBOY169
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Date Posted: 13:01:49 12/19/02 Thu
MTA on the hot seat
Prove need for a fare hike, controller says
By PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Accusing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of a "credibility problem," the city controller ordered an audit of the agency yesterday to see if a 50-cent fare hike is needed.
"All New Yorkers need to understand ... [why] a fare increase is necessary," Controller William Thompson said. "The financial documents the MTA has made public ... have failed to provide such information."
The announced audit of the Transit Authority's budget plan came as new questions arose about the cost of the contract with transit workers.
Transport Workers Union officials pegged the cost of the deal to the MTA at about $650 million - and they ridiculed MTA claims that union givebacks would pay for the raises.
"If their goal was to have the contract pay for what they call productivity changes, they didn't come near their goal," union lawyer Arthur Schwartz said. "I don't think this sets the precedent of workers buying pay increases with givebacks."
Schwartz said the MTA "caved in" on just about all of their demands, including one tying raises to workers doing more.
The union beat back initiatives such as having cleaners change light bulbs, Schwartz said.
The MTA's failure to extract significant givebacks could undermine Mayor Bloomberg, who has said city workers will have to come up with productivity enhancements to help balance the city's budget and fund any future pay raises.
But Bloomberg said his bargaining position was unaffected.
"It doesn't undercut us at all," Bloomberg said. "Whether they got it or not, we don't have any money. They can go raise the fare. We can't do [that]."
The TA expects some savings from one concession - the consolidation of bus divisions - but MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said he would not get involved in a who-won argument.
"Whatever [the union] feels it needs to say to sell this deal, fine," Kelly said.
He later added, "It's nice to know that the ... reports we send to the controller's office won't be gathering dust."
Meanwhile, the MTA board approved a resolution authorizing public hearings next year on a $2 bus and subway fare, which the agency says it needs to help close a $1 billion deficit.
Asked if the fare hike would pay for workers' raises, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow responded: "The deal that was struck was within our financial plan, so it will essentially have no effect on the fare hike."
He denied a published report claiming he said that productivity gains would not cover all the raises granted in the contract. "I didn't say that," Kalikow said.
With David Saltonstall
Originally published on December 19, 2002
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