Bridge Tolls

Three Men in a Room Spike Bridge Tolls

Breaking news from The Politicker's Jimmy Vielkind:

By Brad Aaron

1:52 PM EDT on March 31, 2009

Photo: The Politicker

Breaking news from The Politicker’s Jimmy Vielkind:

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.

The possible alternatives Paterson spoke of include a gasoline tax, increased automobile registration fees and parking fees — though Paterson said he considered a gas tax hike “out of the question.”

For his part, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver characterized the still-secret plan as a righteous rebuke of last week’s MTA board vote to raise fares and cut service — which state lawmakers failed to prevent despite years of warnings. Said Silver:

“I think what’s most important is we’re dealing with the one thing the
three of us agree [on]—the actions of the M.T.A. board cannot be
allowed to stand. We have to get together and provide the revenue and
ensure these 31-percent fare hikes do not stand.”

Now that Shelly’s own $2 toll plan has succumbed without ever coming up for a vote: New York State Legislature, what are you smoking?

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.

Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.