MTA board eliminates subsidy for LI Bus

Funding for Long Island Bus was not included in the $12-billion budget for 2011 passed Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.

The action was expected, as the MTA and Nassau County officials are negotiating about a plan under which the county would gradually assume the cost of operating its bus service, which serves about 100,000 riders daily.

Nonetheless, a spokesman for a rider advocacy group that has led the campaign to save LI Bus service was downcast.

"We're disappointed," said Ryan Lynch of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, who called the vote "terrible news" for Long Island's economy. "They're negotiating, so we have some hope."

Service to LI Bus riders will not be immediately affected. The MTA is required to give Nassau 60 days' notice before terminating its relationship with the county.

MTA board member Mitchell Pally, of Stony Brook, said bus service can continue for several months without an agreement. Nassau County already has put $9 million for the bus service in its 2011 budget, and the state provides a matching amount - though the county will have to accept the matching funds and OK them being used for LI Bus, he said.

Patrick Foye, the Nassau County representative on the MTA board, said negotiations have centered on a multiyear agreement that would see Nassau County's subsidy increase in phases and include the recognition that LI Bus is a county responsibility.

"The social and economic impact of not having Long Island bus is unimaginable and unacceptable to the county and to the MTA," Foye said.

Foye voted against the MTA's budget. Pally voted for it.

For years, almost all of the county-owned LI Bus' budget has been subsidized by the MTA, which operates the agency, and the financial arrangement has caused repeated clashes between the MTA and county officials. This year, the MTA subsidy was about $26 million of LI Bus' $133-million budget, while Nassau contributed $9.1 million. The remainder of LI Bus' budget comes from such sources as fare revenue and state aid.

Last month, MTA chairman Jay Walder said his agency no longer could afford to continue compensating for Nassau County's failure to "pay its bills" for LI Bus, but said he was open to a gradual phase-in of a larger county contribution.

Walder subsequently met privately about the matter with Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, who has broached having LI Bus run by a private company. The county scrapped its original request for proposals from companies and has issued a new one, for which bids are due in late December.

Wednesday, the MTA board passed a resolution giving Walder authority to continue negotiating with county officials.

"I think Nassau County has an obligation to fund bus service in Nassau County, the same way every other suburban county has an obligation," Walder said after the board's vote.

Mangano, in a statement, said negotiations are ongoing.

Pally said that although the board "zero'ed out" the MTA's subsidy, "it's everybody's hope that they would phase it in over three or four years," referring to gradual assumption of financial costs by the county.

The MTA has called on Nassau to increase its subsidy by $26 million. With the county facing a $343-million deficit next year, Mangano has said Nassau cannot afford to pay significantly more.

According to Walder, Nassau has offered to increase what it pays for the bus service by as much as $5 million beginning in 2012.

The MTA has had its own mammoth deficit troubles. This year, the transit agency - which under its wide umbrella also has the commuter railroads Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad; the New York City subways and buses; and most of the city's bridges and tunnels - had an $800-million gap in its $12-billion budget, even after a earlier bailout from the State Legislature. It closed the gap through a combination of service cuts, layoffs, elimination of programs and administrative savings.

In addition, at the end of the year, riders will begin paying higher fares as part of an overall 7.5-percent fare and toll increase that the MTA projects will give it a surplus next year.