Mike and Dave in gear for new tolls

By DAVID SEIFMAN, CARL CAMPANILE and TOM NAMAKO

Last Updated: 4:30 PM, December 16, 2009

Posted: 5:24 AM, December 16, 2009

Comments: 31

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Choke on this, drivers.

Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Paterson both still want to charge drivers to go into Manhattan -- and they each said yesterday those fees would have saved the MTA from its massive 2010 budget hole.

"I don't think congestion pricing or those kinds of things are dead," the mayor said in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he was attending a global-climate summit, in reference to a plan to charge drivers $8 to go below 86th Street on weekdays.

Today, the MTA board will vote to close a $343 million budget gap in 2010, brought on by cuts in state funding and fat raises to transit workers.

As a result, MTA brass is considering shuttering the W and Z lines, eliminating free student MetroCards and cutting back Access-A-Ride service for the disabled.

Paterson, who earlier this year proposed $5 fees for the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queensboro and Williamsburg Bridges, said he couldn't understand why New York City lawmakers were "up there defending the automobile owners" when tolls tanked in the Senate earlier this year.

"Those are the revenues that are now missing. That was in the original plan," he said.

Bloomberg recalled how congestion pricing was shot down in 2008.

"But next time, come March, they're going to have to balance a budget and I think any kind of revenue source is going to be on the table and in fact it may still get done," Bloomberg said.

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Comments (19)

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asymptote

12/17/2009 9:30 AM

Maybe Bloomberg won because voters support asking drivers to pay their fair share.

"New York City voters [...] support congestion pricing 60 - 37 percent if money from the plan is used to improve mass transit in and around the city, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released [in January 2008]."
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Blaze

12/17/2009 2:26 AM

Thank you Mayor Bloomberg, you have convinced me with your last election win. I was not a supporter, but seeing how NYers seem to love you, I say go ahead, make my day and tax me out of existance. Make sure you cut taxes for the rich, so that rich NYers like you can get richer and not hire middle class NYers like myself who are out of work. You can bring in more foreign workers at half the cost so that your stocks and company values may increase and you can stay rich. God bless Mike Bloomberg. He is a genius.
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Blaze

12/17/2009 2:20 AM

STUPID NYERS DESERVE WHAT THEY VOTED FOR
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scoldbg

12/17/2009 12:54 AM

MAYOR DOOMBERG, GOV PATTMYSELFONTHEBACKSON,
WHY NOT CHARGE PEOPLE TO BREATH AIR? ENOUGH OF US WILL PASS WHICH WILL END ALL CONGESTION, HEALTHCARE ETC ETC PROBLEMS.
BUT THEN AGAIN, IT WILL LEAVE NO TAXPAYERS TO ROB AND CHEAT. POLITICIANS IN NY ARE THE BIGGEST CROOKS IN THE WORLD. WHY AREN'T THEY CRACKED DOWN ON LIKE MOBSTERS ETC. THEY ARE EASILY BIGGER THIEVES AND COSTING US MORE MONEY.
RANGEL, SILVER, TO NAME 2. PLEASE, THESE ARE THE 'TRUE' MOBSTERS OF THE STATE OF NY
THANK YOU.
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Uncommon Sense

12/16/2009 4:42 PM

More lies and nonsense: lies from Yutzberg and nonsense from Dim Dave. The revenue projections for the tolls are wrong too, because traffic has declined due to the economy, and the cost and delay of tolls will cause it to decline further. So the MTA will need to beg elsewhere for more of our money plus raise fares again and again, while service and overcrowding get worse due to the tolls and congestion pricing. The real agenda is Mayor Yutzberg's desire to essentially privatize the publicly financed roads for the exclusive use of rich pals. Dim Dave is just getting taken for a ride.
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Gov watcher

12/16/2009 3:47 PM

This is what happens when you allow the overturning of term limits. But what would a billionaire care about a few dollars to go to work? He gets his azz driven around by his NYPD security detail in his SUV. And anyone who buys his, "I take the subway to work" charade seriously is a fool.
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Lisaloves1

12/16/2009 1:57 PM

TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR HIM. REMEMBER TO EAT CROW WHEN YOU ARE PAYING FOR THOSE TOLLS THAT ARE GOING TO BE IMPLEMENTED ON EVERY BRIDGE IN MANHATTAN. AND FOR THOSE WHO LIVE IN MANHATTAN ALREADY, GOOD LUCK DRIVING ANYWHERE BELOW 86th STREET! EAT CROW BECAUSE YOU VOTED FOR HIM. HE'S TRIED THIS MANY TIMES IN THE PAST AND IT'S BEEN SHOT DOWN EVERYTIME. LET'S HOPE THIS TIME HE GETS SMACKED IN THE MOUTH AGAIN AND THIS DOESN'T PASS.
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1jaybird1

12/16/2009 1:27 PM

Mike and Dave are 2 silly fools.