At Monday’s City Council hearings, the news was out that Governor Paterson finally introduced legislation to implement the Congestion Tax, with less than a week for the City and State to make a decision by its own March 31st deadline.
The legislation was subsequently sponsored in the State Senate by Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and just yesterday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver did the same, apparently with echoing boos from his fellow conference members.
The Senate bill is S.7243, and the Assembly version does not have a number yet.
This bill is clearly a rush job since many Council Members could not get straight answers out of DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Longterm Planning Director Rohit T. Aggarwala about the specific legislation that was introduced. In several instances, such as the cost of the Residential Parking Permit program, neither could say exactly how the entire process would cost taxpayers to administer the program and whether the “no fee” promise would stay that way. They also could not answer the most important question of all, asked by Council Member Lew Fidler: why was congestion pricing the only way to accomplish funding for mass transit. Commissioner Sadik-Khan said everything she could to avoid saying what only any other reasonable person would have to say: there are better ways.