At the MTA headquarters in Midtown earlier today, the public was given a final chance to persuade the transit agency’s board not to make real the proposed cuts to subway and bus service throughout the city.

After weeks of public hearings, hundreds of individual testimonies and hours of discussion, the MTA board finally voted 11-2 to pass the cuts this afternoon.

Although the two rooms in the MTA headquarters on Madison Ave were packed with reporters and hopeful straphangers, the vote ultimately passed in an anti-climatic calling for “yea”s and “nay”s. The meeting quickly dissolved after the cuts were announced.

MTA Chairman Jay Walder, who sat through hours of hearings in each of the five boroughs and was the target for much of the public’s criticism, gave a short press conference where he talked about more challenges for the MTA in the near future. Asked about whether or not state legislators should–and would–come to the MTA’s rescue, Walder sounded leery.

“I think the state always has the ability to provide resources to the MTA. Obviously you have to look at the state’s ability to do that in the context of the $9 billion shortfall that they have at the state level,” Walder told reporters. “I think many people spoke today about the fact that they were not optimistic about that. I think it’s appropriate that the MTA has taken the actions that it has taken.”

For  more, see our live coverage

— Dana Rapoport and Colby Hamilton

Cameras catch the action during the public hearing at FIT last week.

Last week we saw angry transit riders across the city vent their frustrations to MTA board members sitting stoically on stages in every borough. Straphangers were furious over proposed service cuts, inter-borough bridge tolls and the MTA’s decision to stop paying for New York City student MetroCards.

The student cards have been a major issues on blogs and in articles. While local politicians have been wagging their fingers at the MTA, a number of transit advocates have suggested to NYCTracks over the last week that, between the city and state, the political pressure will ultimately be too intense for either City Hall or Albany to allow student cards to get cut.

How is that possible? Well, for one, if you look at the history of student MetroCards you see a trend of sorts. It’s important to understand that, since 1948, school kids in New York City have been receiving free and discounted rides. The city’s subways and buses are, in effect, its yellow school buses (and what a bargain they are).

This also isn’t the first time budget crunches have put student cards on the chopping block. In 1994, Mayor Giuliani told the MTA and state legislators that the city couldn’t afford to pay the agency $128 million to cover the kids’ subway rides (in truth the state was reimbursing the city $69 million so NYC was only cover the difference). A deal was reached between the city, the state and the MTA in 1995: the cost of providing kids free public transportation was split three ways, $45 million each.

And that’s exactly how much New York City has paid to the MTA to move its school children to and from school since 1995. $45 million each year. Just to put that in perspective, the projected 2011 budget for New York City is over $66 billion. The total cost today, according to the MTA: $214 million per year. So this three-way split now means the MTA itself is financing $124 million worth of student MetroCards.

From the MTA: projected costs of student MetroCards

To be fair, the city–facing its own budget gap that it must, by law, balance in its budget–has continued to pay its agreed upon share while the state has slashed funding by almost half. Still, it is becomingly increasingly difficult for state and local lawmakers to scold the MTA on this issue without looking like hypocrites.

Not that every politician is behaving badly. Some, like City Council Speaker Quinn and Councilman Vacca, who chairs the council’s transportation committee, have stated publicly that the city council is willing to work with the MTA to find ways to keep from having to make the cuts. State legislators have also indicated to NYCTracks directly that they were determined to find room in the budget for student MetroCards.

But the real question is, how can they not?

550,000 NYC students get subsidized MetroCards. That means, theoretically, over a million parents who would be told they had to pay to get their kids to school. From a practical political standpoint, student MetroCards might be the buck that can’t get passed for New York politicians.

— Colby Hamilton