When straphangers speak, not all the MTA board members are there to listen.
Three members of the 23-member body that will vote next week on whether to raise bus and subway fares to as high as $2 have skipped out on all of the agency’s public hearings on the matter.
Board members Mark Lebow, Thomas Cassano and Joseph Rutigliano have been no-shows.
Six others – including MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow – have been to just one hearing.
“You shouldn’t be allowed to vote on raising the fare if you’ve been to none or one of the hearings,” said Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign. “This shows nothing but disrespect to the riding public.”
The MTA has held nine of its 10 hearings so riders can sound off on the agency’s plan to raise fares on buses, subways and commuter rail lines, and hike tolls on its bridges and tunnels. The final hearing will be tomorrow at the Bronx County Courthouse at 4 p.m.
The MTA has said it needs to raise fares and tolls in order to plug a $952 million budget gap over the next two years.
Lebow, who was recommended to the board by Mayor Bloomberg, Cassano, a member since 1997, and Rutigliano, a member since 1995, could not be reached for comment.
All the board members are appointed by the governor.
The board will vote on a fare hike next Thursday. The increase could go into effect as early as April 1.
But blowing off the hearings has been the norm.
Aside from Kalikow, five other members – Vice-Chairman David Mack, James Sedore, Alfred Werner, Lawrence Gamache and James Harding – have only been to one.