By ANNIE WILNER
June 16, 2008
The MTA should sell its plush Madison Avenue office building and use the proceeds to offset another fare hike, a city official said yesterday.
City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) said the building, located on Madison Avenue between 44th and 45th Streets, is worth at least $200 million. That money, he said, could fill in a significant portion of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's budget shortfall.
"It's a little too easy to pass on costs to taxpayers and riders rather than looking at their own operations and cutting the fat," Gioia said of the MTA.
The agency is expecting a 2009 deficit of $216 million and faces a $15 million to $20 million hole in its five-year capital-improvement plan.
Straphangers could see another 25-cent fare hike next year, MTA executives said last week. The fare was just hiked in March.
