Democrats block $8 entry fee to New York

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s ambitious proposal to charge motorists $8 to enter Lower Manhattan on weekdays appeared to be all but dead after state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced Monday that his house would not put the measure to a vote.

For days last week, the Assembly’s Democratic conference debated Bloomberg’s proposal in secret. On Monday, Silver announced that an “overwhelming majority” of his party members opposed the plan.

“The congestion-pricing bill did not have anywhere near a majority of the Democratic conference and will not be on the floor of the Assembly,” Silver said.

He has refused to offer a precise count of yes and no votes, but estimated that fewer than 25 Democratic members backed the plan.

Bloomberg lashed out at the Assembly after the announcement.

“It takes a special type of cowardice for elected officials to refuse to stand up and vote their conscience,” he said. “Every New Yorker has a right to know if the person they send to Albany was for or against better transit and cleaner air.”

Congestion-pricing supporter Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, a Schenectady Republican, rued the fact that New York City would forgo a $354-million federal grant it was slated to receive if the plan had passed. “We’re going to lose that opportunity,” he said. “It could be once in a lifetime.”

The Senate did not vote on the plan, but Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, also a supporter, said his house was “prepared to bring it to the floor if it served any meaningful purpose.”

Another frustrated supporter was Gov. David A. Paterson. “Now we need to come up with innovative approaches to the challenge of funding mass transit,” he said in a statement. “I will be working closely with my colleagues in the Legislature and experts both in and outside of government to arrive at such solutions.”

In the Senate, observers doubted Bruno would have been able to muster enough votes to pass the plan. He needed some votes from the Democratic minority conference, which is upset at Bloomberg’s lavish support of Senate GOP campaigns.

Still, activists who backed the mayor’s plan say they are not giving up. “This problem will only get worse as the city grows,” said Kathryn Wylde of the advocacy group Partnership for New York City.

Supporters challenged opponents of the plan to find another way to fund improvements to New York’s beleaguered subway system and strained bus service.

“When people complain there are not enough trains and buses, you can point to all the state Assembly members,” said Councilman Robert Jackson, a Manhattan Democrat. “It was right at their doorstep and they did not stand up for New York City.”

Opponents such as Councilmen David Weprin and Lewis Fidler said the $8 entrance fee into bustling parts of Manhattan would have been an unjust tax. “It seems unfair that a small number of middle-class people and small businesses would be taxed to pay for the entire system,” Weprin said.

Fidler said he hoped the mayor “got the message” that the rich shouldn’t be the only ones allowed to travel to Manhattan.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a chief supporter, expressed disappointment. She called the Assembly’s failure to act a setback, but said the council was committed to “environmental responsibility and to improving and expanding our mass transit system.”

Quinn also called for forward-looking coalitions to work together to reduce chronic gridlock and improve air quality.

Even some opponents of Bloomberg’s plan agreed, saying the debates about it overshadowed any positive talks about alternatives.