New Yorkers might soon need a good pair of shoes, because — based on Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch’s report last week — foot transportation might be the best way to get around.
“New York state currently lacks the revenues necessary to maintain its transportation system in a state of good repair,” he wrote.
And Ravitch, who saved the MTA in the early ’80s, ought to know.
But his elixir — “find new recurring . . . tax revenues” — misses the point.
The state, Ravitch says, faces a choice: “significantly higher taxes, fees, fares and tolls or a drastically diminished transportation program that could jeopardize safety and economic well-being.”
Surely, of all New York’s problems, insufficiently high taxes isn’t one; state and local levies here are already the highest in America.
What matters, rather, is how the state chooses to spend its tax dollars.
And, let’s face it: Funding New York’s subways, roads, bridges and tunnels hasn’t exactly been high on the agenda.
The gargantuan sums Ravitch says are needed to keep the state moving are downright scary:
* For the MTA, it’s about $7 billion a year, on average, for the next 20 years.
* For the state Department of Transportation, which oversees New York’s vast vehicle-traffic network, it’s as much as $9 billion a year through 2030.
But then, Albany spends some $136 bil lion a year. The vast bulk of that goes to schools and New York’s golden filigree of social spending: health care, welfare, other entitlements and so on.
Medicaid alone consumes some $50 billion a year in tax revenue. And while some level of Medicaid spending may be necessary, New York has chosen the priciest version in America — by far.
As a Citizens Budget Commission report last week noted, the state spends some $2,283 per capita on Medicaid — more than twice the national average.
And all this social-service spending comes at the expense of transportation.
A Tax Foundation study, for example, ranked New York outlays for “public welfare,” as a share of total spending, sixth highest in America: 21.6 percent, versus a US average of 16.8 percent.
By contrast, Albany allotted just 5.8 percent of its outlays to transportation needs — about 24 percent below the nationwide average.
Similarly, the CBC says New York government spends 84 percent more, per capita, on public welfare than the nation at large; 81 percent more on public heath care, 48 percent more on hospitals . . .
Where New York spends less? Yup, highways — which got 36 percent fewer dollars, per capita, than in other states.
Ravitch is spot on about the need to keep New York’s roads, bridges and mass transit in good order and to take on worthy expansion projects to ensure economic viability. Transportation is a core government responsibility.
But to fund that effort, Albany’s got to reprioritize spending — not raise taxes.
It’s a key challenge that will rest with the next governor, Andrew Cuomo.
Here’s hoping he’s up to it.