Saturday, December 11, 2004

ANOTHER JOKE

The MTA, who run the subways, buses, toll bridges, and communter trains in our great city and the surrounding areas, have voted to give their executive director a raise, from approximately $190,000 per year to around $235,000.

Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? That's a 22% raise!

The MTA says the raise is fare because the heads of the LIRR and other agencies within the MTA were making more than the executive director. Well, that doesn't seem right, I'll admit, but maybe that's a sign of some bigger problems.

The MTA is currently projecting a $116 million deficit for 2005. They're preparing us for more rate hikes, even though subway and bus fares just went up in March 2003. Agents at subway stations are being laid off and token booths are being closed, despite protests from riders, who rightly argue that less employees in the subway make them that much more dangerous. And in the midst of all this, the chief gets a $45,000 raise? A $45,000 raise? Should the head of the MTA really be making a quarter of a million dollars a year while the system gets progressively worse, more dangerous, dirtier, and falls further into debt? Is the fare hike going to go straight to the director's pocket?

From Newsday: "The LIRR plans to slash more than a dozen scheduled trains, shutter ticket offices on weekends and delay cleaning. In all, more than 100 positions out of 6,300 will be lost through attrition."

Of course, if you're a current or former member of the MTA's board, or just married to one, you get a free Metrocard for life. So those pesky fare hikes needn't concern you.

Perhaps the boss isn't doing such a great job. If, on my watch, my company developed a little $116 million deficit, I wouldn't be looking for a $45,000 raise, but would be begging to even be allowed to come to work.

3 Comments:

At 2:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You wrote >>>The MTA says the raise is fare<<<

This is a pretty funny slip. Of course, the salary raise IS fare; our ridiculous fares pay for it.

Dave C

 
At 12:35 PM, Blogger Jackson said...

It's indicative of the disease we face here in NYC, money get's thrown at a problem, it bounces off the problem, lands squarely in somebody's wallet, and the roads and trains still suck.

 
At 9:33 AM, Blogger Tony Alva said...

"Even if there was a conceivable way to actually build a city on rock-n-roll, you'd still have to use mob cement."

-David Letterman-

 

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