Comments on: Congestion Pricing Endgame Begins

By: Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:18:51 +0000

Good eye, drose. The letter is up now.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:01:52 +0000

rex wrote: "time wounds all heels"

Heh.

By: drose

drose — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:46:34 +0000

There's a letter from 20 City Council members to Bloomberg up on the Daily Politics website, decrying the inequity that city dwellers will suffer from congestion pricing as compared to New Jerseyites and suburbanites, due to the free ride that city dwellers will no longer have into the Manhattan CBD.

I'm not too sympathetic to that argument, but politics being politics, 20 is too big a number of members in the council to lose at this point (even if some of them are stridently opposed to CP). That being said, their proposal for either only partial credit for NJ/suburban tolls against the $8 fee or for a Port Authority contribution to the congestion pricing lockbox could be a deal-winner.

My vote would go towards the Port Authority grant. Having just seen on the PA's website that they clear $250mm of cash/year from Bridges and Tunnels after expenses (and adding back non-cash depreciation), even after accounting for the bonds supported by this revenue, there is probably some legal method that could be devised for the PA to contribute some mid-8 figure number to the CP pot. I would think this would be a lot easier than having a NYC/NYS legislative body passing a bill that calls for New Jerseyites to pay an extra tax to go into Manhattan. Not sure if that could pass constitutional muster (even though commuter tax obviously did), given that only Congress and the Federal Government have the right to regulate Interstate Commerce.

The next 3+ weeks will be an interesting time. I look forward to plenty of leaks and trial balloons being floated in an effort to win a majority in both legislatures.

By: rex

rex — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:30:34 +0000

It is encouraging that there is no public groundswell against CP either. I have my doubts whether this will get done, but the conversation over the past year has been healthy, and many people have evolved their thinking about cars in the city. We just need some leaders to lead now. (ahem - Mr. Silver it is your turn.)

The other good thing to happen is that Brodsky has publicly embarrassed himself to point that he has become irrelevant. Proving once again that time wounds all heels.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:11:32 +0000

It's all about the management of blame at this point. They prefer to point the finger in a circle. The question is, can they get away with it? Will people continue to let them?

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:47:35 +0000

Hey shishi--so you're faulting the mayor for not being an ideologue and listening to what a panel of experts knowledgeable in a field have to say about a topic?

By: Bribe Them

Bribe Them — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:39:33 +0000

Pay the council and legislature 1% of annual congestion pricing revenue on-top of their current salary. That's a roughly $17,000 raise for each member of the city council and state legislature. (1% of $450mil/263 legislators.)Even better, it gives them an incentive to keep raising the pricing fee. $4.5million is chump change compared to millions or billions the lawmakers will try to extort in half-baked transportation projects for their districts.

By: fdr

fdr — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:37:20 +0000

The MTA already postponed Fulton Transit Center without having the voting down of CP to blame it on. RPP may fade away too if there's no CP as a catalyst. As for Bloomberg, he will rant and rave and then say he's moving on, as happened with the West Side stadium and the Olympics.

By: shishi

shishi — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:15:22 +0000

Is it just me, but I can remember very clearly how Bloomberg use to say congestioned streets was a sign that the city was thriving, then plaNYC came out and he changed his tune.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:06:24 +0000

Following up, the congestion pricing debate has let the genie out of the bottle on a bunch of things that no one dared to talk about.

If congestion pricing is approved, maybe the outrage will be bought off.

Imagine the attitude toward traffic congestion, parking permits, the postponement of major MTA projects and service declines, etc. after CP is voted down.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:58:52 +0000

I have come to look at things a little differently. If so many payoffs are to be demanded in exchange for congestion pricing, it is better for them to vote it down.

That, rather than the end, could be just the beginning.