New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled proposals late Monday to increase fares and tolls by 4% over the next two years.
The proposals will be the subject of public hearings in December, and the MTA board could modify them before voting on them in January. They are scheduled to take effect in March under a state aid package that passed in 2009 that called for biennial increases.
The full board is also scheduled to meet Wednesday.
"The MTA is keeping its promise to ensure fare and toll increases are as low as possible, and these options are designed to minimize their impact on our customers," said chairman and chief executive Thomas Prendergast. He said that the authority has cut $1.1 billion from ongoing expenses, but that a modest fare and toll increase is necessary to balance its budget.
The authority, a state agency, is one of the largest issuers in the municipal marketplace, with roughly $34.4 billion of debt. It is looking to fill a gap of at least $15.2 billion in its four-year, $32 billion capital program.
Moody's Investors Service assigns an A2 rating to the authority's transportation revenue bonds, its primary credit. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's rate them A and AA-minus, respectively.
According to Prendergast, the MTA has more cuts planned every year to bring annual savings to $1.5 billion by 2017. Fare and toll revenues cover only 52% of the MTA's $13 billion operating budget, he said.
The MTA has myriad fare and toll options for each MTA service, including New York City subway and buses, Long Island and Metro-North railroads, and its tunnels and bridges, including the Hugh L. Carey and Queens-Midtown tunnels and the Verrazano-Narrows, Robert F. Kennedy, Throgs Neck, Bronx-Whitestone, Henry Hudson, Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial bridges.
The MTA will conduct eight public hearings -- one in each of the five New York City boroughs and one each on Long Island and in the northern suburbs east and west of the Hudson River.
