Three Men in a Room Spike Bridge Tolls

David Paterson, legislative leaders and top staffers just emerged from a 90-minute meeting on an M.T.A. bailout package and declared that it will not include bridge tolls.

"The framework I see is that the Senate has really eliminated what my choice would be, which would be to have the tolls. If that's the case, then we're going to have to try to find alternative ways to come up with several hundred million dollars that would replace what would have been the revenues generated by the tolls," said David Paterson, who made a rare appearance at a press scrum outside his second-floor office.

"I think what's most important is we're dealing with the one thing thethree of us agree [on]—the actions of the M.T.A. board cannot beallowed to stand. We have to get together and provide the revenue andensure these 31-percent fare hikes do not stand."