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Mar 21, 2008 7:39 pm US/Eastern
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Gov. Paterson Supports Mayor's Congestion Pricing
Plan Could Support $4.5B In NYC Mass Transit Improvements
Straphangers Campaign Applauds Announcement
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Two days after accepting Mayor Bloomberg's invitation to City Hall, Gov. David Paterson announced his support of the mayor's traffic congestion-pricing proposal for Manhattan, CBS 2 HD has learned.
The Democrat says he supports the recommendations of the New York City Traffic Mitigation Commission. That plan, if accepted by city and state lawmakers, could support $4.5 billion in mass- transit improvements to help reduce traffic in the busiest parts of Manhattan, a measure initiated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Paterson supports a congestion pricing zone that would charge fees to use streets south of -- and including -- 60th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday except on certain holidays.
"Congestion Pricing addresses two urgent concerns of the residents of New York City and its suburbs: the need to reduce congestion on our streets and roads, and thereby reduce pollution and global warming; and the need to raise significant revenue for mass transit improvements," Governor Paterson said on Friday.
"We expect that revenue from the Congestion Pricing plan will support more than $4.5 billion in needed capital improvements for mass transit and meaningfully reduce traffic into the Central Business District of Manhattan. Before the constructive process of deliberation proceeds in both the City Council and the State Legislature, transparency requires that the public fully see what the system envisioned by the Commission will entail. While Commission Report highlighted other issues which need to be resolved, introducing this bill allows the City Council and Legislature to examine the details of the proposal and make an informed judgment on the Congestion Pricing program."
The days are winding down for lawmakers to approve Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. The mayor's immediate problem is that large numbers of state legislators and city council members don't like the idea at all.
With just days left on the legislative calendar, the pressure is rising on Bloomberg to come up with something they can live with. That pressure showed when he was asked about Congressman Anthony Weiner's recent criticisms.
Weiner wrote a column in the Daily News saying New Yorkers shouldn't believe for a second the government will continue funding the city if it adopts congestion pricing.
"That is one of the stupider things that I have ever heard said," Bloomberg said.
Weiner later responded:
"The moment we start to collect taxes from ourselves for mass transit you can count on that level of resources being reduced by the same amount," Weiner said.
Bloomberg on Wednesday released the legislation he's pushing. But he's already offering to change it to make it more palatable to legislators, perhaps by offering tax breaks for poorer New Yorkers who'd be hit hard by the measure.
He also brought the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to back up his claim that the city will lose more than $300 million if the bill isn't passed soon.
Regardless, critics are predicting this idea will go the way of the West Side stadium.
"People have too much common sense to pass this," said Walter McCaffrey of Keep NYC Congestion Tax-Free.
Because time is growing short opponents fully expect Bloomberg to float a compromise soon, but the question is whether these legislative bodies have any appetite for a plan at all.
If passed, New York City would become the first and only U.S. city to have a congestion pricing plan.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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