WASHINGTON – Mayor Bloomberg lobbied federal transportation officials yesterday for a $537 million federal grant for his congestion-pricing plan and repeated that Albany must OK it by Monday.
“We’re talking about the future of our city here,” he said. “We’re talking about the air our children breathe.”
The federal money would help pay for E-ZPass readers and for cameras to spot license plates needed to enforce the fee on vehicles that enter Manhattan south of 86th Street between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays.
“We all know what we need, we just haven’t had the monies to do it,” Bloomberg said.
But, according to Bloomberg, the feds said they’ll give the grant to another city if the state Legislature doesn’t approve Bloomberg’s plan by Monday.
There is no indication that Albany will approve the plan by the deadline because of significant opposition to it in the Democratic-controlled Assembly.