The announced takeover of Long Island Bus by Nassau County has further clouded the future of bus service to Great Neck.
Brian Nevin, a spokesman for Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, said the county received three bids from private vendors who are seeking to provide bus service for Nassau and will be evaluated by a committee of unnamed county employees whose members will meet in private to render a recommendation.
Nevin said their decision is expected in two to three weeks.
Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman is concerned about the secrecy surrounding privatization.
“At this point, lack of knowledge is the worst thing,” he said. “Apparently the county has been very secretive about their plans for an alternative structure. What’s upsetting to me is that they have known about this for months and months and not told anyone about this.”
The request for proposals seeking private vendors to run Long Island Bus was released on Sept. 15, Nevin said.
A privatized Long Island Bus will offer better service for a cheaper price, Mangano said in a statement released by his office.
But Nevin said the county couldn’t comment on specific routes until the bids were reviewed and Mangano selected an operator.
Kreitzman sent a letter to the MTA on March 17 – the same day Mangano announced his decision for the county to take over the operation of county buses from the MTA.
In his letter, Kreitzman said that two bus routes the MTA planned to eliminate – N57 and N58 – and Sunday service on the N25 were “critical to so many people and, importantly, many people who have no alternative means of transportation and cannot afford private cars or taxis.”
“You must find ways to save money without cutting their service,” Kreitzman said. “With a budget of a billion dollars, a few million dollars is a small sum.”
Mangano cited service cuts as well as the high cost of operations in taking over Long Island Bus.
“While I feel for the average MTA bus driver who may lose their job, I am also compelled to protect the taxpayers of Nassau County who already pay the MTA nearly $100 million more than ever before through the job-killing payroll tax,” he said. “Since taking $100 million more than ever from Nassau County taxpayers through the job-killing payroll tax, the MTA has applied no credit for this money toward the LI Bus system. Instead, they have cut services for riders, the disabled and our students. In fact, the MTA is using our tax dollars to subsidize New York City’s transportation system. Residents should be outraged at the MTA.”
The MTA has more employees making $100,000 or more than Nassau County has employees, an example of the MTA’s colossal waste of money, Nevin said. Though one private vendor bid $2.1 million to run the Long Island Bus system, no further details were available.
But union leaders questioned the claims of county officials.
Privatization will be bad for riders, workers and economic development, said Patricia Bowden, President of the Transport Workers Union Local 252, which represents 1,000 Operators and Maintainers at Long Island Bus.
“Mangano has been completely unwilling to negotiate with the union or the MTA to reach a viable solution to what we view as manufactured crisis for Long Island Bus,” she said. “Mangano knows that there are solutions other than destroying public bus transportation on Long Island, yet he prefers to push his privatization agenda in the press rather than working with us and the MTA in the best interest of Nassau County. Privatization of public transportation is a proven loser that may provide temporary budget relief, but in the long run will cost the county in jobs and growth opportunities, as well as cutting off peak service to the bone, and stripping entire communities service altogether.”
Bowden added that with “sky high energy prices, now is the time to maximize public transportation, not destroy it.
“The union’s statements against my administration are misguided and should be redirected toward the MTA, who has demanded that Nassau taxpayers contribute another $17 million annually to their coffers,” Mangano said. “With the Nassau Interim Finance Authority’s recent action to impose a control period over County finances, the County has no choice but to end its relationship with the MTA. The only other option is to increase property taxes to fund the MTA’s bloated bureaucracy. I refuse to increase property taxes.”
Private vendors would allow for more accountability because taxpayers elect the county executive, Nevin said.
“If the bus system fails it will be on him, and if it succeeds it will be on him,” he said. “The problem with the MTA is they’ve been cited by almost every state watchdog for wasting tax dollars. Now taxpayers are going to get a better bang for their buck.
