Local News

Congestion Pricing Vote Shot Down

ALBANY (AP) ― Mayor Michael Bloomberg's legacy proposal to charge a fee to drive into parts of Manhattan to curb traffic and pollution died in Albany Monday.

"I think the headline for tomorrow is, `Albany to New York: Drop Dead,"' Bloomberg's deputy mayor, Kevin Sheekey, said in a NY1 television interview. Sheekey's comment mirrors a Daily News headline from 30 years ago when then President Ford said he would veto a federal bailout of New York City.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Monday that his chamber wouldn't take up the proposal because of strong opposition within the conference dominated by New York City Democrats.

That means the city will forfeit $354 million in federal money for kick-starting the initiative. The Legislature faced a Monday deadline to act on Bloomberg's proposal, which was already endorsed by Democratic Gov. David Paterson, the Republican-led Senate and the City Council.

"Many members just don't believe in the concept," Silver said. "Many think this proposal is flawed."

Sheekey questioned Silver's courage and leadership for failing to push the program. Silver said that if it were up to him, he might have voted for the proposal, but he had to follow the will of his conference.

The concept, known as congestion pricing, was proposed to cut traffic and pollution by forcing more commuters onto mass transit. It would have charged most drivers $8 to drive below 60th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Truckers would have paid $21.

It ran into strenuous objections from legislators from mostly the outer boroughs and New York City suburbs, who said it would unfairly target commuters and their constituents. It's not the first disappointment for Bloomberg in Albany, and with Silver. In 2005, Bloomberg plan to redevelop Manhattan's West Side with a stadium for the New York Jets that would also be a centerpiece of the city's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics was defeated in Albany by Silver.

"New York has engaged in one of the most vigorous and significant debates about transportation policy in modern U.S. history," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters. "While today's announcement, if accurate, is deeply disappointing, New York's mounting traffic and environmental woes point to congestion pricing as an inevitable solution, even if not in the next few months or with the assistance of federal Urban Partnership dollars."

Although there was overwhelming opposition to the plan in private Democratic conference, there was no public vote and individual lawmaker's votes weren't recorded.

Paterson, who supported the congestion pricing plan, said the program is needed to reduce congestion and pollution while raising funds for mass transit.

"Now we need to come up with innovative approaches to the challenge of funding mass transit," Paterson said Monday evening. "Over the next several days I will be working closely with my colleagues in the legislature and experts both in and outside of government to arrive at such solutions."

Silver said part of the problem with the proposal, which Bloomberg had said could begin next year, is that it doesn't immediately provide funding to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He said the agency that runs the city's mass transit is already underfunded and needs to be bolstered before it takes on more commuters.

"That has to be the first job as we go forward," Silver said.

"The mayor is entitled to his vision," said Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Democrat and leading critic of the plan. "And the Legislature is entitled to say it isn't in the public interest."

Brodsky also said the Bloomberg administration failed to address all its concerns over a year, a claim the administration denies. Brodsky was on the congestion commission that held 21 public hearings, in addition to a City Council and Assembly hearing.

The administration in Albany provided a list of 16 major changes to which Bloomberg agreed.

But Brodsky said fundamental, even philosophical questions were never worked out. Among them, he said, was even the idea of charging people to use city streets.

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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