RSS 2.0 FeedApril 8, 2011, Weekly editorial
Senator Fuschillo to the rescue
We applaud the efforts of our local State Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. to help save Long Island bus service. Friday, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Nassau County and Senate Republicans announced an agreement to stop proposed cuts to Long Island Bus that would have affected over half the bus routes in the county.
Senator Fuschillo, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said “a number of communities in Nassau County would have lost bus service entirely, leaving riders who live and work in those communities with no alternative way to get to their homes or jobs. Riders are tired of hearing about problems, they want to hear solutions and we were happy to finally achieve a solution. I’m pleased that we were able to work together with the MTA and Nassau County to prevent the harmful service cuts as well as avoid layoffs.”
The MTA proposed cutting 27 of the 48 Long Island Bus routes this summer, an act which would have affected 16,000 riders. Several hundred riders attended a public hearing at Hofstra University last week to protest. The MTA was scheduled to vote on the cuts at its April board meeting.
Meanwhile $8.6 million in MTA funds, made available by the Senate, will be used to run the bus service through the end of the year. Also, $52.4 million will be appropriated in the 2011-12 state budget for Long Island Bus.
We think Senator Fuschillo, himself a former Nassau Community College student who later graduated from Adelphi University with a degree in business administration, understands that many students rely on the buses to get to school to further their educations and eventually their careers. His years heading the Education and Assistance Corp., a private not-for-profit agency that provides services to families in the metropolitan area, gave him an understanding of the challenges that face our poorer and disabled citizens that he brought with him to the State Senate. And as our local senator, he represents all of us and knows we all benefit when mass transit works.
