At the end of 2006, the MTA announced that it had made so much money off the taxes it collects from real estate transactions?especially the $5 billion sale of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village?that no fair hikes would be necessary, and station improvements would be on the way. My oh my, how times have changed. Now, the MTA has no money for its ambitious projects, and the recent fair hike that was supposed to cover simple quality-of-life issues?like a G Train you don't have to be embarrassed about?won't even cover it. The MTA has postponed $30 million in service improvements, because revenues from real estate taxes have fallen sharply, including the lowest one-month amount collected on residential mortgage taxes (from single-family homes to six-unit apartment buildings) in six years. So the MTA was lying about the whole justification of the fair hike thing? Uh, no comment. It was thought that the pending sale/lease of the Hudson Yards (more on that soon) would inject enough cash into the MTA's coffers, but now it's not even enough to plug the gap on half of what the MTA wants to get done.
· M.T.A. Delays Improvements, Citing Drop in Real Estate Sales Taxes [NYT]
· Time to Pass the Hat on Moynihan Station [Curbed]
· MTA Admits WTC Transit Hub is Out of Money [Curbed]
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