Photograph of the Astoria Boulevard station by carryboo on Flickr

The State Legislature could save the MTA from having to enact severe fare hikes and service cuts if the Senate can agree on a bailout plan. (Riders would still face relatively moderate fare hikes and service cuts.) While the governor and Assembly support helping the MTA, the Senate has been split—though the Democrats have a majority, some Democratic Senators have been adamantly against ideas like tolling East River and Harlem River bridges. Which means the spotlight is on Republican Senators.

According to the NY Post, "Senate Democrats this afternoon are expected to announce a plan that would dangle millions of dollars in pork-barrel funds, money for new staffers, and tax revenues benefiting upstate in front of their GOP counterparts to secure their votes for an MTA bailout." A source points out that $85 million in earmarks still hasn't be distributed.

And the NY Times looks at how Mayor Bloomberg has a "low profile" in MTA bailout talks. While the mayor supports some sort of rescue plan and says he'll help lawmakers, it's suggested he hasn't reached out to state lawmakers because he's not "very popular [in the Assembly]...where anger toward Mr. Bloomberg helped doom his proposal last year to charge drivers entering certain parts of Manhattan," plus he "has rocky relations with Senate Democrats, who resent his heavy contributions to their Republican rivals." And a state Senate source points out "that Mr. Bloomberg might not want to be associated too closely with the rescue bid, in case it failed. That way he will be best able to blame the Legislature for failing to deliver on promises of a transit bailout." Ah, Albany!