A Congested Council Chamber (Update)
March 25th, 2008
For about 12 hours yesterday, members of the City Council questioned, berated and at times applauded both foes and supporters of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan (Even at 7 p.m. last night — the hearing went for three hours beyond that — the council chamber was packed with a standing room only crowd).
Could all that now go to waste?
City officials said the City Council would not consider a home rule message at tomorrow - Wednesday’s - stated meeting. Instead, officials confirmed, the council will wait until a compromise is hashed out in the capital.
Right now, there is legislation in the Senate, but nothing is mirrored in the Assembly.
In order for the council to approve a home rule message, otherwise known as a state legislative request, they need a bill number, said city officials. Therefore, they argue, they need a final compromise upstate before they can draft anything permanent downstate.
This all means congestion pricing, like so many other major proposals in the city, is subject to the whim of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and we may never know where some legislators stand on the proposal.
Update: We just checked with Silver’s office, following up on some of the questions we asked them last week. The only comment we got from his spokesperson Dan Weiler was that there was no bill introduced in the Assembly. Weiler could not elaborate on whether there would ever be one either.
By Courtney Gross on March 25, 2008, 12:07 pmIn category: Albany, Environment, Gotham City, Health, Law, Transportation
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March 25th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Huh? The bill does have a number: S7243. Why can’t they pass a reso in support of that? Why does it need to have a number in BOTH houses?
March 26th, 2008 at 8:57 am
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