Back-to-back articles this week illustrate how irredeemable the MTA has become.
This agency is a bottomless pit, a black hole that will never stop draining taxpayers or commuters while cementing its status as the poster boys for government waste and inefficiency.
The first article talked about the 1,000 MTA workers who earned over $100,000 in overtime last year, hiking the salary of some of their workers to over $300,000 for the twelve months. Seven hundred of the agency employees took home six-figure salaries. https://paper.newsday.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?edid=3017da5a-2937-4fd0-9645-848c7b2efede&pnum=2
This is despite the unveiling in prior years of abuses that led to prosecutions of those gaming the system, and vows to clean up the mess.
Nothing is being done and it looks like nothing will be done.
The article that followed talked about a $25 billion hole in the MTA budget that is likely to occur if their crazy congestion pricing scheme does not work. https://paper.newsday.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?edid=7e3c52fb-1b20-4d05-89c5-b85c7e3f8545&pnum=3
The MTA is once again sticking it to motorists, especially those outside the city, to bail them out for their inefficiencies. It notes that more fare increases and cuts in services are likely if things don’t improve. Don’t count on them improving if history gives us any clues.
Those running the MTA either don’t have the will to implement change or don’t have the ability, given the crazy contracts and work rules that hamper management flexibility.
This is a government behemoth heading off a fiscal cliff.
There is an answer.
Let it go bankrupt.
Some may think this would shut down service. It would not. Municipalities have gone bankrupt in the past when officials just couldn’t get a handle on their finances. Detroit did. Bridgeport, Connecticut did. And New York City almost did in the 1970s.https://www.wmtxlaw.com/cities-declared-bankruptcy/
Bankruptcy could be a good thing in that it would give a judge the legal ability to tear up these horrific contracts and work rules, and start from scratch.
Stop the insanity of bleeding taxpayers and commuters.
Break up this horribly inefficient and hopeless organization. Let it go bankrupt and start all over.
The Center for Cost Effective Government is a think tank dedicated to exposing wasteful government spending and educating the public on various measures that can control taxing and spending for the purpose of creating more hospitable conditions for taxpayers and the business community. www.centerforcosteffectivegovernment.org