LI Bus lurching toward reality
An N47 Long Island Bus turns onto Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow. Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin
The MTA's acknowledgment that it won't cut off Long Island Bus in the immediate future and will negotiate with Nassau on funding was welcome news.
The MTA is offering to continue partially subsidizing LI Bus if Nassau will increase its contribution gradually and pay the whole bill by the end of County Executive Edward Mangano's term in 2014. Nassau must also concede, in writing, that funding LI Bus is wholly Nassau's responsibility. Nassau is the only county whose bus service is subsidized by the MTA. That can't last forever, nor should it.
Nassau pays $9 million annually to the MTA to run LI Bus, but the MTA had asked for an additional $26 million for next year. The financially strapped county has now made a good intent offer to the MTA as well, to up its contribution by $5 million. Mangano also says he'll concede that Nassau is responsible for funding LI Bus in the long run but only if the parties can agree on fair billing practices.
Despite this progress, Mangano is still foolishly touting privatization as an option. That's just not real.
LI Bus is more Nassau's problem than the MTA's. Nassau needs time and help to transition to fully paying its own bus bill. The MTA is offering it.
Mangano should make the best deal he can for a transition, then focus on how he'll fund 100 percent of LI Bus when the time comes. hN
