As Election Day approaches, Sen. Elaine Phillips continues to insult the intelligence of LIRR commuters in the 7th District.
As I’m sure your readers are aware, Phillips has been demanding the MTA cancel next year’s LIRR fare increase.
At a recent news conference, she claimed that the MTA needed to be “held accountable for poor service.”
Her boss, Republican Majority Leader John Flanagan, added that fares should be frozen indefinitely and that the MTA “had enough money.”
Of course, this righteous indignation is rich enough coming from Phillips, who wants everyone to forget that she was the chief opponent of the LIRR Expansion Project (commonly referred to as the “third track project”), a project critical to achieving consistent on-time service.
What makes it even richer, however, is that Phillips’ proposed solution to the LIRR’s service woes would not result in improved service, but rather make service even less reliable.
Specifically, the four-percent fare increase in question is on par with two years of inflation (the last increase was in 2017).
Without this increase, the MTA would not have the same amount of money to work with, but, in practice, less.
Phillips tries to get around this by calling for the state to allocate $60 million to an operating fund that the MTA could tap only if LIRR service improved.
Of course, she does not explain how the MTA could reach this goal with the initial drop in revenue she is proposing.
Further, if Phillips’ plan moved forward and service failed to improve (which would likely be the case), what would be the solution then?
Would she call for leaving the fare freeze in place indefinitely, like Flanagan suggested, slowly defunding the MTA?
The question LIRR commuters and other regular riders should ask themselves is, “Do they want cheaper poor service or do they want better service?”
For anyone who answers better service, Phillips does not deserve your vote on Nov. 6.
Matthew Zeidman
New Hyde Park
