The three most powerful men in Albany—Governor Paterson, Assembly Speaker Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Smith—were able to come up with a $132 billion budget in secret. But any attempt to save the MTA is being stalled by the Senate.
At least, that's what Paterson says. PolitickerNY reports that Paterson complained about the Senate's discord at an event, "So there are Democratic senators who won't vote for the tolls and Democratic senators who won't vote for the mobility tax, and the Republican senators, all of them, who won't vote for anything. So, right now, I think that these elected officials have got to sit down, the senators, and at least have a plan. Like it or don't like it, the Assembly has a plan. The Senate if, if they were to offer a plan that financially is sound we would certainly consider it."
The Daily News details the impasse in the Senate: "Tolling the East and Harlem river bridges was taken off the table Tuesday because a handful of Senate Democrats, like Brooklyn's Carl Kruger, said they wouldn't vote for tolls, calling them unfair to motorists from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Now the plan is in jeopardy because some suburban Democrats are wavering under the heat from school districts that would see expenses rise with a payroll tax in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's 12-county region." A source told the NY Times, "I think we’re nowhere" on a deal. In other words, Albany is doing what it's doing best: Being totally dysfunctional! (Albany is also where transportation plans go to die.)
Some of the ideas being thrown into the mix to generate MTA revenue in lieu of East and Harlem River bridge tolls include a 50-cent surcharge on NYC taxi rides, a 5% fee on car rentals and another auto-registration fee. One New York City resident sounded off to the Post, "It's ridiculous. They're raising the subway fare and the taxi fare at the same time. They should look at a congestion tax. They should get the commuters who come into New York and not the ones who live here." Hilarious—Silver killed congestion pricing last time. Anyway, get ready for Doomsday?
