The Government cannot do anything right except run NASA, the US Army, Marine Corps, US Navy, Coast Guard, US Air Force, US Geological Survey, Medicare, Social Security (yes) etc.., etc.. and the corporate world can do no wrong except giving us a health care system that costs 50% more per capita than that of any industrialized nation while covering only what it chooses to cover and leaving 40 million out, it can also do a wonderful job in the auto industry and corrupt our political system with 35 000 lobbyists...

Hearing Comptroller Loui speak of pain in New York City, gives me some conflicted emotions. Having lived in Buffalo, in the 70's and frequent visits since, there is a city that knows fiscal pain. I love NYC, dont get me wrong but sometimes I feel we often sound a bit spoiled when one compares ourselves to Buffalo, Syracuse, etc...

Now we have an open enrollment policy for high schools, and there are no more local public high schools--will we institute school buses for these students? Upstate, school buses are the norm even at the high school level and the state pays for them. Revoking student metro cards for these students who now have to travel all over the city to get to their school is in effect a tax on city public school families that upstate families do not have to pay. And operating even more yellow buses in the city makes no sense from a traffic/pollution standpoint.

This is exactly why I didn’t vote for this man either time. He’ll never be able to tell the truth.
Nothing stops a student from using their monthly Metrocard 24 hours a day (when they aren’t ducking under turnstiles or going though the emergency doors). And by the same account, as Brian pointed out, I mostly use my card on my commute to work and commute home… that doesn’t really cause the MTA all that much money, does it? I want to ride for free too!

how much does it cost NYC to extend curbs to block the streets, install chunks of concrete in the middle of avenues, have cars parking in the center of the street for bike lane creation, and reducing avenues to 1-lane streets? Why not funnel this money to education instead of destroying the streets, the character of the city, and causing traffic jams?

Please ask him what HJS from 11211 asked.

"what percent of the state budget comes from the city?"

Why can't there be a proper audit of the MTA? I ride every day and I have never seen a peak or dip in the amount of riders using the subway (before and after the fare hike).
???????????????????

I like John Lui, but just hearing his reasoning for students metrocards - yikes - I've lost faith.

I'm all for student metrocards, but his rationale is absurd. John, please, get a better reason. If you can't make a decent case for student transporation, then how on earth are we going to believe your defense of pension reform?

what percent of the state budget comes from the city?

In a recent interview on NY1 Comptroller Liu said that providing students with free metro cards has "no marginal cost" to the MTA. How is it possible that one million students have no marginal cost to the MTA? The responsibility of the MTA is to run subways and buses; it's the responsibility of the state and the city to provide the funding for students to get to school. The city and the state have reneged on their promise to fully fund student metro cards. The MTA has a legal mandate to balance its budget and has done so despite hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to its funding this year. It was sad to see Comptroller Liu demagogue the MTA rather than proposing real solutions to the student metrocard issue.

i'm running for the students