Streetsblog New York City

The New York State Senate voted for a “gas tax holiday” yesterday, moving to eliminate the three state taxes on fuel for the busy Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day weekends this year. The estimated loss of revenue would be $60 million.

The 48 state senators who voted for the gas tax holiday wanted to ensure that drivers didn’t have to pay for the environmental and social costs of their actions — a misguided enough goal — but their desperate attempt to pander wouldn’t even have been a success on those grounds.

As economists from across the political spectrum have stated, a summertime gas tax holiday wouldn’t reduce the price at the pump. Oil companies would charge the same rate and pocket the difference. The libertarian Cato Institute, no friend of taxes, called gas tax holidays a “holiday from reality” in 2008. If we really must pander to motorists, surely we can all agree that New Yorkers deserve better panderers.

Those state senators, however, are savvy politicos. They can’t deliver the goods, but they know their audience. That’s where the gas tax vote is especially revealing.

Even if a gas tax holiday worked as promised, reducing the price at the pump instead of increasing Exxon’s profit margins, it’s a sure thing where the money comes from: the state’s transportation budget. If the gas tax holiday costs $60 million, that’s $60 million in new revenues needed for the MTA and state DOT, or $60 million more in cuts to things like education. While only drivers would even theoretically benefit, everyone else would pay the price.

Voting for a gas tax holiday means you’re worried about appeasing drivers in your district and not too concerned with sending everybody else the bill. That’s probably good politics if you’re Patrick Gallivan, the Western New York senator whose district has a 96 percent car ownership rate according to Streetsblog’s analysis of Census data. More outrageous is the fact that many New York City senators seem to agree.

Read more…

This year’s legislative session is rapidly coming to a close in Albany. With the state legislature wrapping up its regularly scheduled official business on June 20, the Capitol is entering a period of intense activity as legislators and lobbyists make a final push for their priorities.

Albany has some big items on its agenda this month: rent regulations, a property tax cap, ethics reform, and gay marriage. Somewhat below the radar, the push is on for a number of street safety and sustainable transportation priorities as well. Time is of the essence, as advocacy momentum built up over the year dissipates after the session ends. Bills that falter this time around will have to start over again after the legislature reconvenes in January.

If support gels for any of the following bills, the legislature can act extremely quickly to turn them into law. That’s especially true in the Assembly, where Speaker Sheldon Silver controls a large majority and where most of this legislation is currently stalled or has died in past sessions.

Complete Streets

Complete streets legislation would require planners to consider the needs of all road users when designing a road receiving state and federal funding. Last year, it passed the State Senate but stalled out in the Assembly.

After talking with the legislation’s opponents, complete streets supporters made some revisions to the language, and an updated version of the bill is headed to the Senate Transportation Committee today, said Nadine Lemmon, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s Albany legislative advocate. As now written, the complete streets bill would cover the large set of projects that already need to conduct extensive reviews as part of the federal approval process, which involves filling out thick binders of paperwork. “We’re targeting projects that already have to do a lot of review and we’re just adding two pages to their world,” said Lemmon.

Purely local projects wouldn’t be covered, but Lemmon argued that as towns or counties prepare complete streets plans on some projects, they’d grow more familiar with the concept, leading to what she called a “trickle down effect.”

In the Senate, the complete streets bill is sponsored by both Charles Fuschillo and Martin Dilan, the chair and ranking member of the Transportation Committee, respectively, along with twelve other senators. In the Assembly, however, the companion legislation hasn’t been introduced yet. That said, Lemmon reported that preliminary conversations about the bill with both the governor’s staff and state DOT officials have been encouraging.

Read more…

Leandra's Law, passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by Governor Paterson last year, mandates ignition interlocks for motorists convicted of DWI and makes it a felony to drive drunk with children as passengers. But since it was adopted, over two dozen counties have asked for a two-year moratorium on implementation of the law, set to begin in August.

The reason, according to language contained in legislation now pending in Albany, is that lawmakers have historically directed revenue from DWI fines to the state's general fund, and localities say they don't have the money to carry out restrictions placed on the thousands of drivers who will be sentenced under Leandra's Law every year. The new law, sponsored in the Senate by Martin Malave Dilan, would redirect $6.8 million from the general fund to counties where fines for certain traffic violations are collected.

The bill also seeks to fold administration duties into existing STOP-DWI programs, rather than requiring counties to establish a new bureaucracy for carrying out sentences and managing probationers. Without dedicated funds to help with implementation of Leandra's Law, the bill's authors say, more offenders will end up pleading down to the lesser offense of Driving While Ability Impaired.

Said Assembly co-sponsor Aileen Gunther, Democrat from Sullivan County, "By using an existing funding stream, derived from convicted drunk drivers, and by utilizing the expertise and core competency of county STOP-DWI coordinators, we can implement the expanded ignition interlock program effectively and on time."

The bill has passed the full Senate, while its Assembly companion has yet to clear the transportation committee.

The campaign to rein in sprawl and build more livable communities across New York state intensified yesterday, as advocates redoubled their efforts to pass two critical pieces of legislation in Albany. Groups working to advance complete streets legislation, including AARP and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, and those pushing for statewide smart growth policies, such as Empire State Future, announced they will be teaming up to pass both bills.

The complete streets bill, sponsored by Brooklyn Senator Martin Malavé Dilan, would require that all new and reconstructed roads "accommodate all users," old or young, whether they walk, bike or drive. If passed, the law would "make complete streets the norm rather than the exception," said Nadine Lemmon, Tri-State's Albany legislative director. As Streetsblog reported last month, the legislation is moving quickly through the State Senate, but hasn't progressed beyond the Assembly transportation committee, chaired by Rochester Democrat David Gantt. 

The public infrastructure act, sponsored by Westchester County Senator Suzi Oppenheimer, Brooklyn Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Buffalo Assembly Member Sam Hoyt, would shift state infrastructure spending -- on roads, sewers, schools and housing -- away from far-flung sprawl and toward projects in line with smart growth principles. More than a dozen state departments, agencies, and authorities -- including heavyweights like the state DOT, the Port Authority, the Department of Education and the Empire State Development Corporation -- will be required to focus their spending on existing infrastructure in developed areas.

Under the smart growth bill, infrastructure projects would also need to protect the state's environmental resources, foster compact, mixed-use development, and reduce automobile dependency. Agency heads can only ignore these criteria if they sign a written justification of their decision. "We're going to make it very hard to build another sewer line into another greenfield," said Peter Fleischer, the executive director of Empire State Future, New York's smart growth coalition. 

Fleischer added that unlike past smart growth legislation that's come out of Albany, this one has some teeth. "It clearly instructs state departments, agencies, and corporations," he said. "It doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room." 

Read more...

Legislation to require transportation projects in New York state to include pedestrian and bicycle access was reported out of the Senate transportation committee Tuesday.

S5711, a.k.a. the Complete Streets Bill, would mandate that new and reconstructed public roads "accommodate all users," specifically pedestrians, cyclists and "individuals of all ages and mobility capabilities." Sponsored by Brooklyn Senator Martin Malave Dilan, the bill has broad support from a coalition of interests, including transportation advocates, public health groups, and AARP.

A 2008 report from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign found that pedestrians aged 65 years and older in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are at much greater risk of being killed than their younger counterparts, and that the senior pedestrian fatality rate is higher in the tri-state region than in other parts of the country.

Bill Ferris, legislative representative for AARP, said getting complete streets legislation adopted this session is a priority for his organization. "We firmly believe our roads need to be designed for all users," Ferris told Streetsblog, "not just automobiles." Ferris is "very hopeful" that S5711 will be passed by the full Senate.

At the behest of bill supporters, the version that cleared the transportation committee included the addition of "sidewalks" to the definition of complete streets, and tightened previous exemptions. For example, the bill now specifies the grounds on which a town could deem the cost of a complete streets project "excessively disproportionate," explained Lindsey Lusher Shute of Transportation Alternatives. Senator Catharine Young, a Republican from Olean, voted against the bill, saying it would impose undue costs on rural localities.

As complete streets legislation moves to the floor of the Senate, there has been no action on its companion in the Assembly, where it sits in the committee of transportation chair David Gantt, who is also the sponsor. Said Ferris: "Our hope is that the Assembly will take notice of the movement in the Senate and start pushing their version of the bill shortly."

"We anxiously await Assembly Member Gantt's introduction of the updated language in the Assembly and the coalition is ready to help bring his colleagues along," Shute said. "It would be an incredible victory to pass this legislation in a tough budget year, and a testament to the value of complete streets for the environment, public health and the economy."

The New York State Senate has proposed diluting the bus lane enforcement provisions in the governor's draft budget, a maneuver that threatens the effectiveness of new corridors in the city's fledgling rapid bus network.

New York City's strategy to enhance bus service depends on camera enforcement -- which can't be enacted without Albany's approval -- to keep exclusive bus lanes clear of traffic. Governor Paterson's draft budget included a robust program for bus cams. The State Senate's budget proposal, released this week, alters the governor's plan and would lead to a more restricted, less effective program, Streetsblog has learned.

The Senate version limits camera enforcement to existing bus lanes. That could slow down riders on new Select Bus Service routes, including parts of First and Second Avenues and upgrades slated to improve trips for tens of thousands of riders in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

While the Senate passed its budget resolution Monday night, there's still a window to restore better bus cam provisions. The governor, the Senate, and the Assembly must all reach a budget agreement, and the bus cam language won't be final until they do.

"Select Bus Service is the most important and promising project for bus riders in years," said Lindsey Lusher Shute, director of environmental campaigns at Transportation Alternatives. "The New York State Senate needs to revise their bus camera language and give SBS their full support. We expect the Assembly to do the same."

If the Senate language were to emerge from the budget process, riders on the B44 route in Brooklyn, which currently has no bus lane, would lose out. The B44 serves 42,000 riders daily and received the Straphangers Campaign 2009 Schleppie Award as the city's most unreliable bus route. SBS upgrades on the B44 recently received a $28 million federal funding commitment and could go into effect as soon as 2012.

Some of the route falls within the district of Martin Malave Dilan, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

Read more...

After omitting bridge tolls from last spring's transit funding package, then raiding the "piggy bank" to the tune of $143 million, Albany's neglect of the MTA has left millions of transit-dependent New Yorkers in the lurch. Yet lawmakers have shown no inclination to get to work patching the agency's ever-widening budget hole, much less coming up with a viable long-term fiscal solution. Quite the opposite.

As once-planned "doomsday" service cuts expected to be approved this week were put back on the table, Senate Dems attempted to evade responsibility by deflecting and projecting. Said Fare Hike Four mastermind Carl Kruger, as quoted in the Observer:

"Our ability to budget is only as good as our ability to forecast. We were dependent upon data supplied by the Office of Management and Budget with the understanding that it was verified by the MTA's own fiscal staff. Furthermore, our projections were based on the fiscal year rather than the calendar year. This critical point should have been taken into account when the MTA fiscal staff developed its parameters."

Insisting that the new payroll tax will someday do the job, Senate spokesman Austin Shafran accused the MTA of employing scare tactics, while transportation committee chair Martin Malave Dilan lashed out at the new transit chief, then in his ninth week on the job. Again, from the Observer:

[Dilan] is angry that the M.T.A. didn't say anything about its sudden $343 million deficit sooner.

"It is an affront to our burgeoning partnership, often discussed in previous months, to exclude us from this critical information," Dilan wrote in a letter to M.T.A. CEO Jay Walder. "It appears, even under new leadership, that business will continue as usual with Gary Dellaverson assuming the addition[al] role of press secretary for the MTA. Instead of a cooperative exchange of thoughts and information, we may be left with an adversarial relationship played out in the press."

So, who's going to hold these pols to account? Probably not the Working Families Party, whose latest online petition amplifies the MTA-bashing of Kruger and company. The governor, meanwhile, looks to be sitting it out altogether as the engine of the region's economy is threatened with a massive breakdown.

Will any state legislator step up and show some leadership at this critical moment? Eric Schneiderman? Dan Squadron? Liz Krueger? John Sampson? Anyone?

State legislators are about to head home for the Easter and Passover holiday, leaving transit riders to twist in the wind a while longer without an MTA funding plan in place. Martin Malave Dilan, chair of the State Senate's transportation committee, gave Politicker's Jimmy Vielkind one last debriefing before the legislative break:

"We were really trying to get something done, but this 'rush' thing really doesn't work," he said. "Basically, what's on the table is a $25 [auto] registration fee for the 12 counties; there's also a possibility of an additional cent or two [on the gas tax] within the 12 county region."

Dilan said nothing is final; both proposals have been floated before.

A payroll tax is still on the table, according to Dilan, somewhere in the neighborhood of 34 cents per $100 of payroll. Previously, some members of his Democratic conference have expressed reservations about that measure, and Dilan said they are "looking at doing an exemption for education."

If the modest registration fee and tiny gas tax hike are really what's on the table instead of bridge tolls, then we're in trouble. A one-cent raise in the gas tax would generate an estimated $24 million per year. Bill Thompson projected that his weight-based vehicle fee proposal would raise $1 billion, but that's with a $100 charge for the smallest cars and $400-plus for behemoths like the Lincoln Navigator. A $25 average hike pales in comparison.

The ideas Dilan bats around don't add up to any more than $200 million per year, even if you put a rosy spin on the numbers. Shelly Silver's toll plan would likely raise more than twice that amount for the MTA (plus a hefty sum for bridge maintenance). Who knows what the transportation committee is doing behind closed doors, but they don't seem to be hard at work crafting a solid financial foundation for our transit system.

Biggest Setback: After being approved by an unprecedented civic coalition, the mayor and New York City Council, congestion pricing -- the one policy measure that simultaneously reduces traffic congestion while raising money for mass transit and livable streets -- died in an Albany backroom without even a vote.

Lobbyists of the Year: Walter McCaffrey and the Committee to Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free (below). It turns out New York City government is controlled by a handful of Queens Democrats, suburban state legislators and the Automobile Club of New York.

How Not to Lobby a State Legislator: Brooklyn State Senator Martin Malave Dilan's car is towed during a congestion pricing meeting with city officials.

Most Sociopathic Elected Official: Bronx State Senator Jeff Klein nearly crushes a cyclist with his black Mercedes and then tells him, "Get your hands off my car, you f*#king a55hole." Unfortunately for Sen. Klein, this particular cyclist happens to run a pretty robust media operation.

Most Disappointing Elected Officials: During the congestion pricing debate, three State Assemblymembers stood out for their enormous potential to exert leadership and their utter inability or unwillingness to do so. Deborah Glick, Joan Millman and Hakeem Jeffries all represent districts that would have overwhelmingly benefited from New York City's congestion pricing plan. Yet, Glick could only find reasons to oppose it. Millman decided she supported it -- two hours after the proposal was killed by her Democratic Assembly colleagues. And Jeffries had the gall to demand increased subway service on the G line three weeks after helping to eliminate the revenue source that might have paid for it. If only New York City were represented in the state Assembly by an aggressive, attentive, self-aggrandizing politician like...

Elected Official of the Year: You've got to hand it to Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky -- he works hard for his constituents and supporters. Unfortunately for New York City's traffic-choked neighborhoods, beleaguered transit riders and asthmatic kids, his constituents are the metropolitan region's wealthiest car commuters and his supporters own a bunch of parking garages in Manhattan. While New York City's legislators rolled over and played dead, Richard Brodsky worked his butt off to make sure that New York City's congestion pricing plan -- a plan approved by the Mayor, City Council and a state commission -- died a quiet death in the Assemly's Democratic conference. Brodsky did incredible damage to New York City in 2008 but he also showed us what effective representation in Albany might look like.

Worst Elected Official: Rochester Assemblyman and transportation committee chairman David Gantt continued his decade-long effort to deny New York City the ability to deploy automated traffic enforcement systems on its streets. He loosened up a little bit though. This year he introduced legislation that would allow counties outside of New York City to use red light cameras -- as long as they purchased the technology from a Swedish firm represented by one of his cronies. Shocking? Not really. Just another day in Albany.

Most Opinions Fewest Solutions Award: From now on, this will be called the Anthony Weiner Award.

Most Moronic Idea From Albany: State Senators Jeff Klein and Eric Adams put on their serious, fighting-for-the-people faces and proposed suspending tolls on New York City bridges and tunnels and giving drivers a $200 gas tax rebate ahead of Memorial Day weekend. Not planning to burn lots of gasoline for your summer holiday? These two have nothing for you.