Op-Ed: Germino on Privatization of MTA Bus

Editor's Note: Robert Germino is a former candidate of the 13th Assembly District seat and a Glen Cove resident.

In response to Nassau County Executive Mangano's plan to privatize Long Island Bus, Patricia Bowden, president of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 252, publicly stated, "Privatization of public transportation is a proven loser that may provide temporary budget relief, but in the long run will cost the county in jobs and growth opportunities."  

Nassau County residents, however, have been the only "proven loser" under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

According to the MTA's 2011 adopted budget, Long Island Bus (LIB) accounted for only one percent of expenses excluding depreciation, other post-employment benefits (OPEB) obligation, and environmental remediation; however, New York City Transit (NYCT) consumed 53 percent of revenue. Nassau County residents fund the MTA not only via transit fares and tolls but also through numerous taxes and fees. These taxes and fees include a payroll tax on all public and private employers in the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District; a portion of the sales tax; a vehicle registration fee; a driver's license renewal fee; an additional sales tax on car rentals; a petroleum business tax; a corporate surtax; a mortgage recording tax; and a surtax on telecommunication services.  

We, consequently, send an overwhelming majority of our dollars to NYCT.

In addition to subsidizing NYCT, we fund the MTA's rabid labor costs. From 2008 to 2009, for example, LIB's total labor costs exceeded 4% and TWU Local 100 (the public union that controls NYCT) received a generous labor contract at arbitration (i.e., an 11.5 percent pay increase over three years with decreased contributions to employee health care costs). During the same period, the U.S. Government reported that personal income levels in New York State decreased by approximately three percent and inflation grew about two percent.

The MTA made us "losers" here too.

Despite the aforementioned facts and that the private sector owned the majority of mass transit systems in the United States until the Kennedy Administration, there will be some who still call us to the ramparts of MTA-managed transportation. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC) announced that they will coordinate a media campaign to defend the indefensible status quo.  TWUs, post Quill-Connolly Day, unite (they have nothing to lose but our change).

Those who adamantly oppose privatization should propose supplementary revenue sources for LIB that do not lighten our pockets.  

Here are some suggestions:

• Institute an annual tax on the political campaign accounts of New York State legislators who supported the MTA bailout bill (i.e., a new payroll tax on all employers in Nassau County, a vehicle registration fee, a driver's license fee, and an additional sales tax on car rentals).
• Add an additional tax on the pay and benefits of the TWUs.
• Include another surtax on item two that accounts for the difference between New Yorkers who lost income since 2008 and those TWU members who realized gains.
• Add a surtax on the income of MTA management.
• Compel groups of TSTC's ilk to pay a "Nassau Bus Riders" fee.

These ideas should be no less desirable to the MTA supporters than their call for Nassau residents to continue public financing of LIB. Do they expect us to shoulder it alone?