JH Times: Dromm Speaks at Transportation Forum

From Jackson Heights Times:
Jackson Heights residents got sobering messages of sacrifice and necessity from former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch, but few assurances that the borough’s specific transit woes would be solved if his plan to institute East River tolls and a payroll tax were implemented.

Speaking at a forum organized by state Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D−East Elmhurst) and state Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D−Jackson Heights), Ravitch said he empathized with people’s reluctance to pay taxes and tolls, but warned the agency’s $800 million operating deficit meant the current funding system is inadequate.

“This is the only city in the United States which is totally dependent on mass transit,” he said, noting 84 percent of people coming to the city’s central business district are straphangers of some kind.

Ravitch’s plan calls for a $5 toll on all East River crossings, a payroll tax on employers and an 8 percent increase in passenger fares. It would eliminate the proposed service cuts in the MTA’s current doomsday budget proposal and reduce the anticipated fare hike of 23 percent.

Democratic District Leader Daniel Dromm asked if tolling the bridges would create traffic jams and increase smog in the Queens neighborhoods along the East River.