MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-04-05 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] This Pork Aint Kosher
|
Pork handouts offered to pressure council members to OK congestion plan
Wednesday, April 2nd 2008, 4:00 AM Mayor Bloomberg put on pressure to
get green light on plan. Rosier/News
Mayor Bloomberg put on pressure to get green light on plan.
No one could recall such a naked combination of arm-twisting and
pork-barrel handouts to pressure City Council members to approve the
huge tax increase known as congestion pricing.
"City Hall offered more in goodies this week to get this tax passed than
the federal government is giving us to do it," said Brooklyn Councilman
Lewis Fidler, a leading opponent of the plan that passed by a 30-to-20
vote.
Harlem Councilwoman Inez Dickens, for instance, got a last-minute promise
from City Hall for major changes she'd been seeking to the huge 125th
St. redevelopment plan.
Her colleague, Sara Gonzalez, got a promise of a new ferry line for her
district in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Councilman Domenic Recchia of Gravesend was offered a new ferry line
for his constituents from Coney Island to Manhattan.
Up in the Bronx, a major retail redevelopment project at the Kingsbridge
Armory that had been stalled for a year suddenly moved forward in the
past few weeks.
Joel Rivera, the Council majority leader from the Bronx, had opposed
the mayor's plan until Monday. Rivera suddenly switched his position
the day of the vote. He joined six other members of the Bronx delegation
to deliver near-unanimous support for the mayor's $8-a-day tax on cars
coming into the central business district on weekdays.
On Staten Island, Councilman Michael McMahon, who claimed he was leaning
against congestion pricing, stunned most insiders by flipping at the
last moment.
"You wouldn't believe the pressure," said one supporter of congestion
pricing who asked not to be identified. "Some of my colleagues in Council
suddenly got religion on Monday after opposing this thing for weeks."
Others talked of the mayor suggesting in private meetings that he might
hold fund-raisers for certain term-limited Council members running for
new posts next year.
Everyone, of course, denies any direct relation between their vote
and the specific "enhancements" for their districts, or any offers of
political support.
"The 125th St. negotiations with the local members of the Council are
a normal part of the ULURP [uniform land use review process] process,"
Bloomberg spokesman John Gallagher said.
As for the new ferry routes, Gallagher said the mayor and Council
Speaker Christine Quinn are "working with the Council on a five-borough
ferry plan."
Throughout all of this frenzied lobbying the past few months for
congestion pricing, Quinn has acted like a slavish deputy sheriff to
the mayor.
In case you think this was all part of the give-and-take of the democratic
process, consider the following: A few months ago, the mayor's plan was
so unpopular it looked unlikely to even be voted out of committee.
Five of the seven committee members, including Rivera and McMahon,
were poised to vote against it. So what did Quinn do? She slipped two
supporters of congestion pricing onto the committee.
Now the fight moves to Albany, where the Senate and the new governor
just rejected Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's commendable plan to
tax millionaires.
Our billionaire mayor who keeps creating congestion with huge new
skyscraper condos for the affluent will now demand that Albany force
the middle class to pay the freight for reducing congestion.
jgonzalez-at-nydailynews.com
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