Everyone knows that New York City's subway is a feat of engineering that miraculously hasn't imploded, collapsed, or fully dilapidated yet. 

But all of this costs money, and nobody really seems ready or willing to spend it. 

True, tons of people drive in NYC, but the subway fare is our "price of gasoline"; our gauge for how expensive travel is. So, naturally, everyone's a little touchy about it.

The fact is, the MTA's budget is important, and it really needs to be dealt with in order to keep straphangers, um, hanging on straps. We don't want delays, we don't want hassles, we just want it to work well and not cost too much.

But the fact, for now, is that the MTA is short $9.8 billion. Let that number sink in for a second. You alive? Good. 

Now, the city and the state are the major contributors to the MTA's budget, and in order to fund all necessities, without increasing the subway fare hike past 4%, the state would have to contribute $7.3 billion and the city an additional $3.2 billion-- two and a half billion more than NYC has budgeted at the moment.

[anad]

Of course, there are a ton of senseless back and forth blame games between NYC and the State of New York on who should fund what, and how. 

All of that basically amounts to useless politics and is pretty much pointless to the average subway rider, as all of this city/state cash comes from our taxes anyway, right? 

If funding isn't acquired through the city and state, then one or both of two things will happen. One, imperative repairs and maintenance will fall short of the mark and the quality of our subway experience will suffer.

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Or, the resulting fare hike will come out of our pockets, too. So it doesn't seem to matter (too much) whether the state or city steps up, nor does it really matter that subway riders pay the difference at the ticket machine. 

One way or another, we the people, in order to get from one place to another, are paying for the whole thing, or, worse, a shoddy deal with worse service. This is only part of the constant frustration we have with the MTA, but right now this huge contributing factor. 

Check out 7 Reasons Why Penn Station is the Worst Place in New York City. Ever. 

[via DNA Info]

[Feature Image Courtesy of New York Daily News]