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Transit chief slams Albany over congestion failure

By Matthew Sweeney | msweeney@am-ny.com

April 11, 2008

The federal transit chief took a swipe at Albany for blocking Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan Thursday and encouraged supporters of the idea to keep fighting for it.

"We at the DOT in the Bush administration consider the decision to be very disappointing as well as short-sighted," said James Simpson, the federal transit administrator for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Congestion pricing would have brought $354 million in federal transit funds to New York City.

Simpson encouraged congestion pricing supporters to "keep pushing" and "hold our elected officials responsible," despite the defeat Monday at the hands of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

"It's too important for New York," he said.

Dan Weiller, a spokesman Silver, said there was never support in Albany to pass the plan. The speaker's failed idea for a five-year "millionaire tax" would have funded transit with $5 billion, he said.

Simpson pointed to other federal funds that the MTA and New York might apply for, including $175 million for congestion pricing proposed for the FY2009 budget, and pots of money given to "new programs" and "small programs" for transit. A proposal like New York's Bus Rapid Transit to reconfigure lanes and traffic lights for buses would easily qualify based on population density, Simpson said. But such federal funding would require the MTA to come up with a portion of the costs, at a time when the agency is strapped for cash.

Both Silver's millionaire tax and Bloomberg's plan could possibily be resurrected next year.

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