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Despite strong objections from elected officials, Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial congestion pricing initiative has cleared a major hurdle, and passed a vote in the City Council by a 30-20 margin. Now it’s life or death for the proposal in Albany, where the State Legislature holds the power to approve or kill the plan by April 7.

In the Queens delegation, five members; Eric Gioia, John Liu, Hiram Monserrate, James Sanders and Thomas White, voted to support congestion pricing, 10 voted against the proposal.

In comments after the vote, Mayor Bloomberg praised the City Council and pointed to the resolution as the dawning of a new day. “I think it’s fair to say that the sun is shining on New York City’s future today,” he said. The Council has now approved the congestion pricing plan that is embodied in the amended bill that Governor David Paterson is submitting to the Legislature.”

Approval by the City Council sets the stage for the critical vote in Albany, where the State Assembly has to approve the measure before it goes into effect.

The proposal appears to lack enough support from the Assembly to pass. Calls made to members of the Queens delegation were nearly all negative.

In comments Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-Jamaica) said he won’t support congestion pricing if it comes up for vote in the Assembly.

“I’m against the congestion pricing tax because it is unfair to the people of New York, especially those living in the outer boroughs,” he said. “Drivers in the outer boroughs are most adversely affected by the tax.”

“Although nothing is official, my sense is that we don’t have enough votes in the Assembly, based on conversations I’ve had with my colleagues. Unlike City Council, the Assembly does not have the leverage to overturn the issue.”
Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) also said he won’t vote yes on the bill, although he remains unsure it can pass the Assembly, the future of congestion pricing on the road north to Albany looks bleak.

Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky agrees with this sentiment. In a letter to colleagues he wrote that the mayor’s amended bill doesn’t pass muster. “This bill does not have the votes to pass in the legislature because it has failed to solve legitimate concerns of the people.”

While the plan has garnered the support of Governor Paterson and Senate Majority Joe Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has said he will not schedule a vote before the state budget is passed, which is already late. This would cut it extremely close – the legislature has until Monday to vote on the plan, or the state will forfeit $354 million in transportation funds.

As the congestion pricing vote neared, some City Councilmembers had become increasingly critical of the plan. Councilmembers Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and David Weprin (D-Hollis) joined forces last Friday with members of the Queens Chamber of Commerce to rally against the Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial proposal. Avella called congestion pricing “an undue tax on working and middle class families and small businesses.”

At the anti-congestion pricing rally, held at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge-one of the boroughs most congested areas-supporters and opponents of the proposal gathered to voice their opinions. Supporters held signs urging drivers to honk in opposition to the plan. Most of the horn honking came from trucks and other delivery–type vehicles. These businesses are surely to be effected by Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial plan to charge drivers to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.

Both Avella and Weprin voted against the bill on Monday night.

This border determination is also no accident, illustrated by the locale of the rally.

The plan calls for Manhattan’s business district to begin below 60th Street, thus including the major East River crossing from Queens, the Queensboro Bridge.
According to Avella, congestion pricing, “is not a viable option or solution for reducing traffic; it is merely a revenue generating plan. It should be the responsibility of the leaders of the city to find ways of increasing revenues to improve mass transit without placing the fiscal burden upon those who can least afford it.”

Councilman David Weprin, Chair of the Finance Committee agreed with Avella’s assessment of the charge as akin to a tax. He said that while he acknowledges traffic congestion is a problem, he opposes the plan as currently structured, “No one can ignore the fact that we do have a congestion problem but the idea of taxing the working class as the only means of reducing traffic is short-sighted.”

He also stated he feels other means of reducing congestion are more appropriate and could prove more effective “Traffic mitigation alternatives include more vigorous enforcement of existing traffic and parking rules, like cracking down on double and triple parked cars, preventing trucks from parking in loading zones once they have completed their deliveries, reducing non-emergency deliveries during the day and stopping taxis from middle of the street pick-ups and drop-offs.”

Councilman James Gennaro, chair of the Environmental Protection Committee (D-Fresh Meadows) also voted no on the home rule resolution. He claims Albany has shortchanged the city on transportation for many years, and the mayor’s plan is not a bill to clean the environment.

“This bill is being called a clean air bill—a major one—it’s not. It certainly would have some clean air benefits—negligible by the administration’s own figures—but if the goal today was to do a major clean air bill, we’d be here voting on a bill to limit air pollution from buildings, which is far and away where most air pollution comes from, not vehicles.

Over the weekend, Governor Paterson amended the program bill that was recommended by the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission. The State legislature approved provisions should congestion pricing go into effect that would allow for disabled persons and some commercial companies to avoid paying the fee. A deal was also struck to allow those that qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit program to be exempt. The amendments, according to Paterson, “address fiscal contributions by the Port Authority to the MTA capital plan and add an important tax credit provision for low-income drivers.”

The City Council, State Senate and Assembly must approve Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing initiative by April 7 in order for the city to remain eligible for a $354 million federal grant for transportation improvements. The mayor’s plan would charge driver $8 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.