MTA: OVERTIME DISASTER

I dont know the ratio of who commutes to New York City and who works within the region, but for those who make the longer journey, your travel plans may be altered again. As we know, the MTA had announced a few years ago that they were going to cut a couple of subway lines and dozens of bus routes to the outer reaches of the burroughs. That they did.

The intent was to cut spending on personnel and decrease the cost of maintainance. Their short sighted plan backfired. The way the contracts are written, everyone from dispatchers to rail mechanics made out big time through overtime and other perks. So much for cutting costs.

Hogging a huge slice of the overtime were LIRR employees, who benefit from arcane union work rules that allow everyday engineers and grease monkeys to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars above their salaries while barely lifting a wrench. Railroad employees account for more than half of the top 100 overtime earners in 2009. And of those,
Officers and ranking members of the MTA's police force and Bridge and Tunnel officers rounded out the top overtime list.

Since Larry Delarose is running for the State Senate and portions of the 39th district depend on rail service, I asked him for his perspective. He said: "Well, the MTA is in the news again for sloppy financial management and wasteful spending....gee what a surprise. The latest boondoggle is the revelation that there are MTA employees who because of antiquated work rules and access to excessive overtime are making six figure salaries...some as high as $250,000 a year. Are any of the state senators in the mid-hudson region....where we constantly whine about being abused by the MTA and sometimes rightly so....aware of this?"

So I rummaged through some other articles on the MTA and the overtime mess and found the best example of abuse I could find. Not counting employees who retired and cashed out sick and vacation days in 2009, the person with the biggest difference between his stated salary and total compensation is Michael P. Castro, a senior accounting analyst at MTA Bus. Castro made $228,000 on a $72,100 salary; a difference of $156,252. The MTA disputes that number, saying Castro's W-2 forms only show him making $77,490.

I threw this little tidbit back to Larry to get his response: "Mike, I have called several times in the past months for the Governor to appoint a financial review board to oversee the MTA's financial operation until they get their financial house in order. As a civilian, that all I or any of us can do. It would be nice to know if any of these gentlemen are aware of the above mentioned situtation and what they intend, if anything, to do about it.

Seriously, if you think about it, the estimated cost in overtime to the MTA annually is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Why can't we plug this loophole and use some of the saving to help balance the state budget.....wouldn't that be better than closing state parks?"

As for me, I can tell you that I have found nothing from our current State Senator in the press regarding the MTA overtime costs and frankly don't expect to. This issue has been brewing for decades and well, if he's been in that office for 21 years with little influence on our commuting experience and costs thus far, I doubt he ever intends to.

Just another reason for a fresh perspective in the New York Senate.

MORE FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR UPSTATE RAIL

Everyone knows I like railroad stories. Anything about Subways, the MTA and High Speed Rail gets my attention. Link that with the desire to pump up tourism, jobs and the Fed Stimulus, and it becomes news.

It seems our upstate representatives have secured their portion of the High Speed Rail monies needed for their track modifications. This would equate to almost $5 Million for physical improvements at road crossings from Albany to Buffalo. Similar funds were allocated for the Albany-NYC corridor previously.

This small sum is merely a blip on the Federal level since the whole project is expected to cost $8 Billion nation wide over 10 years. Our biggest concern locally is getting commuter rail on the west side of the Hudson River to better serve Ulster County.

The goal is to increase train speeds which currently average less than 80 mph to 110 mph and eventually 150 mph. Sure these trains would have to stop here in Kingston, right? Wouldn't you take the train from a new midtown station to Manhattan? The money for both sections of the NY upgrade are to be awarded by the the end of the year.

All of this rail work will take atleast five years to acomplish, so this isnt a quick fix for our current economic downturn, but the prospect of commuter rail may rekindle interest from companies that may have over looked the western Hudson Valley region based simply on the lack of transportation.

This will be good for business, tourism and the environment, reducing congestion and pollution from cars and planes. With an evident push for green industry and the support of all of the environmental groups throughout the region, this will undoubtedly be welcomed spending by anyone paying attention.

Now if we could only upgrade the "final mile" issue.

MTA RATES AFFECT UPSTATE

Get ready for some more bad news.

The MTA has just announced that the board is prepared to increase fares on commuter rail and road tolls as well as implement new tolls on some once free bridges in the metro area.

Our upstate economy has already suffered enough without increasing the costs of residents who still trek down to NYC for work.

23% is the number being floated around, and the Board, unless some magical influx of new funding, is expected to vote on this rate hike in April. The pocket gouging wont take effect until June, but who thinks this will help the Hudson Valley in our effort to survive this avalanche of new fees, diminished revenues and rising unemployment numbers?

There are a few months to go before we "discover" new revenues for the MTA, but keeping this from the public during this holiday season isnt going to make it any easier after your New Years Day hangover.

Happy trails everyone.