NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The MTA board was supposed to vote on a possible fare hike, Thursday morning.
Instead, the MTA will postpone the vote, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.
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Lawrence Schwartz, who heads the MTA's finance committee, says raising fares would be an insult to riders because of poor service, and agreed that the vote should be postponed. He told CBS2 the authority should monitor problems the way the NYPD monitors crime.
"They call in the borough commanders and they look at the stats and the statistics and they say why is this happening? Why is that happening?" he said.
Riders like Ernesto from Williamsburg say it's the wrong time to raise fares.
"Don't do it until you fix things, there's no reason to do it otherwise," he said.
Governor Cuomo said the MTA needs to straighten up management issues before implementing a fare hike.
"Put the mayor in charge, put me in charge, somebody has to be in charge," he said.
The MTA is mulling a fare increase from $2.75 to $3 in the face of a billion dollar deficit. The MTA says fare evasion is costing them a half a million dollars a day.
The board will postpone the vote due to uncertainty over the L train as well as a last-minute proposal by a board member to hold off on a fare increase until the MTA meets certain benchmarks.
The vote is expected to take place sometime in February at the earliest.
