ALBANY—Top aides to Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith are negotiating with the mayor’s office over whether Michael Bloomberg might endorse some version of the M.T.A. bailout bill which is slowly moving through the Senate chamber.
Gene Russianoff, an advocate with NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign, said he was told by Senate staffers that they discussed the possibility in meetings today. Of the Senate’s bill, he said, “They consider it a serious effort, even if it is a foundation for discussion.” Russianoff said it’s “teetering at around 30 votes and they need some help.”
A representative from Bloomberg’s office declined to comment.
The Senate plan got a cold reception from David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, neither of whom seem to look at it as a working framework for action.
