By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — For straphangers looking for a forum to rail against the city’s proposed subway service cuts, the MTA will hold its only public budget hearing in Manhattan on Thursday.
The meeting, one of nine held across the greater New York City area, will take place at 6 p.m. at Chelsea’s Fashion Institute of Technology, inside the Haft Auditorium on Seventh Avenue at 27th Street.
At issue is the MTA’s doomsday budget, which attempts to solve the transit agency’s $750 million shortfall by slashing services and discontinuing free MetroCards for New York City school students.
If the MTA’s plan is implemented, students who now receive three free rides per day will be forced to pay half fares beginning in September 2010 and full fares beginning in September 2011, the Daily News reported.
The proposed cuts to student service have proved particularly controversial with residents and advocacy groups, who fear that students will simply stop attending school.
"Without free means to get to school, hundreds of thousands of kids will drop out," insisted Chelsea resident Gabrielle Gemma, of the Bail Out the People Movement.
