New York, NY —
Mayor Bloomberg may think the traffic in midtown Manhattan is bad… but he’s now seeing a different form of gridlock: the one in Albany. Bloomberg’s plan to charge drivers who enter Manhattan did NOT win approval from state lawmakers yesterday, even though he warned that a deadline was looming. Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats wound up pointing fingers over who was to blame. WNYC’s Beth Fertig has more.
REPORTER: When Mayor Bloomberg introduced his congestion pricing plan in April, he knew its fate would ultimately be determined by Albany. Yesterday, the billionaire mayor was once again humbled by the capital’s control over the city.
Republican Senate leader Joseph Bruno said the Senate would vote on the mayor’s proposal Monday. But the speaker of the Democrat-led Assembly – Sheldon Silver - held his own meeting yesterday 150 miles away in New York City. Silver spent 2 and a half hours in a conference with lawmakers from the city and its suburbs. In the end, the Speaker said they could only agree on one thing: that congestion pricing raised a whole lot of questions.
SILVER: And those issues include what should be the zone, if pricing is adopted what should be the prices, what should be the exemptions, what parking facilities should be created in other areas of the city and the region, even the suburban regions so that we could encourage mass transit appropriately.
REPORTER: Silver said his members wanted to create a commission to answer those questions while exploring alternatives to any fees. This commission would be appointed by state and city officials and report back by March of next year. Silver said that a letter could be sent to the federal transportation department overnight so the city could still qualify for hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce congestion, and he suggested that Republican Senate leader Bruno and Governor Elliot Spitzer supported the plan.
But just over an hour later, Bruno held a press conference in Albany denying any such agreement.
BRUNO: What the speaker is proposing doesn’t work. What the feds need is a plan to be implemented. They don’t need a commission to study the ramifications of congestion pricing.
REPORTER: Bruno said he had conversation with Mayor Bloomberg about the Assembly’s actions.
BRUNO: The mayor of course is disappointed and upset, I’m going to let the mayor speak for himself.
REPORTER: Bloomberg, however, did not have much to say about what appeared to be the demise of his signature plan to fight congestion. He went to Albany Monday where he lobbied lawmakers in a last ditch effort to pass his bill, then headed back to New York City without commenting. Last night he left a reception at Gracie Mansion without commenting to waiting reporters, instead speeding off in his SUV..
GRACIE MANSION REPORTER: Mayor the congestion pricing plan seems to have fallen apart in Albany, is it dead?
REPORTER: Bloomberg had set yesterday as the deadline, because the federal transportation department said it was “unlikely” that New York could receive a grant if its legislature didn’t authorize major congestion relief by July 16th. New York is among 9 finalists for the grants, which are to be announced in August. Bloomberg proposed using 500 million dollars to buy more than 360 buses AND to set up a thousand cameras for tracking license plates for charging drivers who enter Manhattan south of 86th street.
With the plan in jeopardy, the fingers began to point. Assembly Democrats said Bruno didn’t have enough Republican votes to approve congestion pricing in his house. And Bruno blamed Governor Spitzer for failing to get his fellow Democrats to support the mayor. Meanwhile, some Democrats suggested that Mayor Bloomberg was trying to railroad them into approving a complicated proposal – with some comparing it to the demise of his West Side Stadium. They worried about the cost to their constituents, and the risk of extra traffic in the outer boroughs.
Supporters, however, said Bloomberg already answered those concerns with numerous studies. Katherine Wylde, president of the New York City Partnership, said Bloomberg also spent the past year building a coalition of environmentalists, business leaders, and transit advocates who favored charging drivers to enter Manhattan.
WYLDE: The problem here is that the congestion pricing issue is a tough one to start with and it’s all mixed up with campaign finance reform and salaries at the end of a crowded legislative session, it all fell apart. We’re hoping they get together again this week and it all comes together.
REPORTER: But that wasn’t looking likely last night. For WNYC I’m Beth Fertig.
WNYC’s Kathleen Horan contributed to that report.