Mr. Bloomberg's plan calls for the introduction of an $8 charge on cars wishing to enter Manhattan below 86th St between 6am and 6pm on weekdays. Trucks would be charged $21. Tolls paid at bridges and tunnels would be deductible from the congestion charge. Mr. Bloomberg has asserted that the levy would help pay for much-needed mass transit improvements. He has also claimed that at present the cost of congestion – including wasted fuel, increased operating costs and lost revenue – comes to about $13 billion per year.
In recent weeks, he has been rounding up support for his proposal. Governor Eliot Spitzer, New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and, as of Monday, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn have backed him.
However, there is a fly in Mr. Bloomberg's ointment – the Democratic majority in the State Assembly, and their leader Sheldon Silver in particular.
Mr. Silver has become synonymous with obstructionism during his 13-year stint as Speaker. He foiled Mr. Bloomberg's intended West Side Stadium in 2005 and has also dragged his feet conspicuously over Moynihan Station.
As is his wont, Mr. Silver has not enunciated any clear principles on which his objections to the congestion charge are based. During an interview with an Albany radio station last week, he instead quibbled over the boundaries of the proposed fee-paying zone, and also mused on various other options for addressing congestion.
He declined to say whether he actually favored any of those options, of course, merely asserting that he's "not being negative."
If Mr. Silver's track record were more constructive that claim might be more believable. The Speaker has also said it is unlikely the Assembly will be able to take action on the mayor's plan before recessing on Thursday – though he has held out the possibility of convening a special session later in the summer.
Mr. Bloomberg, who insists the plan must be passed by early August if the city is to avail itself of up to $500 million in federal start-up funds, is unimpressed.
"If you can't do it by the 21st or whenever they finish up this session, I don't know why you would think you could do it later on," he said last week. "You're not going to learn anything else in another week or two."
The bickering continues. Meanwhile, New York's pre-eminence among international capitals comes under ever-increasing pressure. A January report jointly commissioned by the mayor and Senator Charles Schumer stated that the city was in grave danger of losing its status as the world's leading financial center in the next ten years.
Just last week, a report by MasterCard said London was now the best center of commerce in the world. It surpassed New York on four of the six criteria on which the rankings were based.
Mr. Bloomberg's congestion plan will not, of course, solve all New York's infrastructural problems in a single stroke. But it would represent a significant step in the right direction.
When Mr. Livingstone decided to introduce a congestion charge in his city, he overrode the objections of a majority of the members of his local assembly to do so.
When he contemplates New York's sclerotic state government, Mr. Bloomberg must long for the same freedom.
