State Legislature
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Transit Lockbox Picks Up Five Sponsors After Advos Make Their Case in Albany
Efforts to protect dedicated transit funds from Albany budget raids moved forward on Tuesday as a coalition of transportation advocates went to the state capitol to lobby for transit riders. The transit lockbox bill immediately picked up five sponsors, and more seem poised to sign on.
May 26, 2011
In Effort to Pander to Drivers, 48 Senators Vote to Up Oil Company Profits
The New York State Senate voted for a "gas tax holiday" yesterday, moving to eliminate the three state taxes on fuel for the busy Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day weekends this year. The estimated loss of revenue would be $60 million.
May 25, 2011
Albany Update: Will Any Transpo Bills Make It Out Alive?
This year's legislative session is rapidly coming to a close in Albany. With the state legislature wrapping up its regularly scheduled official business on June 20, the Capitol is entering a period of intense activity as legislators and lobbyists make a final push for their priorities.
May 24, 2011
With One Month Left In Session, Advocates Push For Transit Funding Lockbox
Momentum is growing in the push to protect dedicated MTA funds from Albany's predations, but with only one month left in the legislative session, time is ticking. Assembly Member Jim Brennan and Senator Marty Golden, the bipartisan sponsors of the transit funding lockbox bill, stood today with a broad coalition of transit advocates in the Times Square subway station to make a final push for their legislation.
May 19, 2011
Swap the Suburban Payroll Tax for East River Bridge Tolls — Deal or No Deal?
Five Senate Republicans, led by Sen. John Bonacic, are making transit advocates an offer they can probably refuse. The payoff is appealing: state authorization for bridge tolls on the East River bridges. But the price they are demanding in return, the total repeal of the payroll mobility tax outside New York City, is too high to pay.
April 25, 2011
Final Budget Deal Does Not Add to Cuomo’s Transit Raid [Updated]
The final budget agreement reached by Albany leadership will not make additional cuts to transit funding, a state budget division spokesperson confirmed this afternoon. Negotiations with the legislature did not ultimately change the total amount of transit funding from Andrew Cuomo's executive budget, which raided $100 million from dedicated transit funds.
March 29, 2011
Assembly and Senate Would Strip Another $170M From Transit Riders
When Andrew Cuomo released his executive budget in February, it included a $100 million raid on dedicated transit funds. As Cuomo hammers out the budget in negotiations with the State Assembly and Senate, however, it seems that the MTA could lose up to another $170 million. Both houses of the legislature are seeking cuts and the issue appears to be very much alive.
March 24, 2011
Marty Golden’s Truck Safety Bill Advances in the Senate
A little-known bill that could save lives has cleared the State Senate Transportation Committee.
March 4, 2011
DenDekker Withdraws Statewide Bike License Bill
Celeste Katz at the Daily Politics has the scoop. Here's the statement from the western Queens Assemblyman who envisioned licenses on every bike and cameras in every bike lane:
March 3, 2011
Michael DenDekker Explains His Inexplicable Bike License Bill
Remember last month when Council Member Eric Ulrich came out with the idea of creating a complicated new bureaucracy to register and identify New Yorkers who ride bikes, a proposal that would build an expensive and redundant personal identification system on top of our existing ID systems, opening the door to increased harassment of cyclists by law enforcement?
March 1, 2011