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Q. You strongly oppose the MTA’s vote earlier this month to raise subway fares. A lot of East Village residents heavily rely on the subway – why is this issue important to you?
A.We’ve got to take the MTA out of the hands of the bankers who’ve turned it into an ATM for them. We loaded up the MTA with all this debt, rather than having progressive taxes. Instead they borrow and that adds debt servicing. When that adds up, they start raising fares, they cut station managers and transit workers to pay off the interest. It’s much cheaper to tax them upfront than to borrow and pay interest for it. That’s one way to make sure fares don’t increase.
We need dedicated funding that’s efficient. I’m interested in the congestion pricing plan by Ted Kheel and Charlie Komanoff. They think it would provide an extra $1.5 billion to the MTA that would give it a dedicated revenue stream.
via Interview | Howie Hawkins – The Local East Village Blog – NYTimes.com.
Filed under: 3rd party, Election 2010, governor, grassroots democracy, Green Party, howie hawkins, new york, New York State Politics, politics Tagged: | public transportation, trains
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