Albany sessions end with congestion pricing shocker.

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, Sunday morning, the session has ended in Albany. Well, what happened? Who wins? Who loses? With us today? From bloomberd Newses Zach Williams, Zach, do you have an update for all our citizens?

0:15 Speaker 2 Well, the state legislature finally finished its scheduled session last week. And you know, it really was a key point in the calendar when a lot of lawmakers are looking to advanced legislation on gun control, environmental legislation, a crackdown on plastic waste, and then all of a sudden, oh, and of course social new restrictions on the algorithmic social media

0:38 feeds used by teens, and then all of a sudden, the governor threw a bomb and everything when she when unexpectedly the news came out that she was going to unilaterally block the implementation of congestion pricing in New York that, of course, is the plan to charge drivers as high as fifteen dollars to enter the island below sixtieth Street,

0:59 And that her decision left a billion dollar hole in the MTA capital budget that lawmakers were just kind of scrambling to try to figure out a way to plug. There were a couple ideas back around, but ultimately they left Albany without figuring out what to do, you know, and I think mainly because they kind of feel it’s

1:19 Kathy Hochel’s problem to solve.

1:21 Speaker 1 Well, Zach, I mean, I know a little bit about mathematics. It’s a two hundred and forty billion dollar budget. A billion dollar hole is one third of one percent, so you’ve you cut off one third of one percent off everybody’s budget. It it’s balanced.

1:40 Speaker 2 Well, one billion dollars can certainly raise a lot more through bonding, and the hope was that that annual one billion dollars in revenue could be used to get larger amounts of money to the MTA for upgrades, signaling the expansion of the Second Avenue subway all the way north to up you know, through Uptown, and also accessibility upgrades.

2:04 You know, there was a lawsuit settlement I believe maybe last year. Recent years were basically the MTA committed to improving elevators and other accessibility features of the subway system, and now they’re facing potential lawsuits for biolating that order if that work doesn’t continue. So it’s a big legal mess.

2:24 The governor evidently saw a political website to delay the June thirtieth implementation of congestion pricing. But you know, this could help Democrats in the upcoming congressional races, and that appears to be the main motivation for the governor as well as her own political standing as well, although she puts it a different way that this was all just

2:45 a response to the you know, the needs of New Yorkers who talked to her and diners who just brought up that fifteen dollars just too darn high to pay to drive the car into below sixtyth Street at certain hours of the day.

3:00 Speaker 1 I understand, but it just seemed that that money was punishment to the people that live in Manhattan, and especially at this time where Manhattan has not made a comeback and the out of Burrows just thought there were just overall losers.

3:23 Speaker 2 Well, I think he did hit the nail on the head that congestion pricing was not popular. The polling has showed that. I think a key issue here that you got to look at, though, is it wasn’t just that the governor ultimately cited with congestion pricing opponents. It’s that, you know, there were just two weeks over four hundred.

3:41 You know, until it was going to start, there was more than four hundred million dollars in infrastructure already installed. That’s the cameras, recognize license plates and you know, make sure people pay the toll. And all that money now appears to be wasted, all because the governor up ended, you know, four or five years of process, seemingly on

3:59 a political a win that said, you know, there’s a lot of people that support her that you know, are kind of looking past the way that she, you know, violated the regulatory process of twenty nineteen state law doing this all because she claims jannel Leb’s going along with it.

4:16 Speaker 1 Well, I think she did the right thing of billaying climate change. There was some kind of super fun act that they were trying to pass and they were awaiting governor hopeful signs.

4:32 Speaker 2 Well, there’s that old political axiom they should never let a crisis go without making some use of it. And you know, just as lawmakers were scrambling to think, you know, where can we raise a billion dollars to plug this hole the governor created in the MTA budget. You know, there was this idea of writing kind of an IOU

4:50 or you know, legislature just says, hey, we’re going to give a billion dollars. There was also the idea of raising the payroll mobility tax on businesses that didn’t go over well, and then some lawmakers look towards this outstanding piece of legislation called the Climate Super Fun Act that would basically charge large energy companies like Exxon, you know,

5:08 for the environmental damage that they do, and they would take that money and contributed to a state fund that maybe some lawmakers are thinking might help them out with the MPa down the board, down the line. You know, Vermont recently enacted a law that’s very similar, but you know, New York much larger state, and I’m sure there’s going

5:28 to be a lot of people asking Governor Hokel to Vito. This one. One bill that didn’t make it to the finish line, though, was a proposed law that would have made you know, plastic manufacturers and like food companies, you know, basically reduced the use of plastic packaging by thirty percent and twelve over the next twelve years. You know, that

5:49 bill seemed almost to be a done deal in the Senate, which have passed it, and as simply where it didn’t. But ultimately the bill faltered just with days to go, and you know some have laned, can this whole uproar over congestion pricing? We’re just sucking the political oxygen out of the legislative chamber.

6:09 Speaker 1 What bill made it through? That’s going to be uncomfortable for most citizens. I mean, you know, enough is enough sometimes, you know, people are moving out.

6:20 Speaker 2 Well, I think an interesting bill to watch that could have a whole range of implications, maybe some good, maybe some bad. Or these these new digital privacy protections that for children that the governor was pushing. And at the final stretch of the session, you know, on the wand a lot of people are saying that social media has

6:41 had some pretty bad effects on team’s mental health. So but at the other on the other side, you know, the remedy is good. You know, with the legislation that was passed would basically require parents give the permission before social media platforms could you know, used algorithmic feeds or send overnight notifications from midnight to six an. You know,

7:05 some say and whether there’s civil rights groups or the tech companies themselves that infringes on free speech rights, you know, the right to access information, the right to reach an audience. So I’d expect some port challenges on that one coming up pretty soon.

7:19 Speaker 1 We got a minute left.

7:20 Speaker 2 Anything else, Well, I just say, you know, now that the legislative session has ended, you know, the focus now shifts to the governor. You know, there’s hundreds of bills that will be sent to her before the end of the year. You know, some of them she’s going to sign, some of them to my veto. But with this governor

7:39 there’s a big tendency to use a process called Chapter amendments, where basically the governor strikes a deal with lawmakers and say, I’ll sign your bill and the law, but you got a pinky swear that you’re going to make certain changes.

7:50 She’s done that a lot in past years, and I expect she’ll do it again.

7:55 Speaker 1 Okay, thank you, Zach Williams, Bloomberg News, Thank you so much for the update for only yours.

8:02 Speaker 2 Hey, thanks so much, John, take care of