Questionable Support For Senate Dems' MTA Plan

The State Senate Democrats may have a new MTA bailout proposal that involves a payroll tax and a taxi dropoff surcharge, but it might not have the votes it need for passage! The NY Times' story is headlined Latest Plan for M.T.A. Is Foundering in Albany while the Daily News is, naturally, more blunt: Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith's MTA plan might be dead on arrival.

Because the Democrats only have a 32-30 majority, they need every vote to pass the proposal. The Times spoke to four Democratic Senators—one from Nassau County, one from Suffolk County and two from Westchester County—who are opposed to the payroll tax and Republican minority leader Dean Skelos said the GOP Senators "[have] a real problem with the payroll tax." Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn) told the News, "There's no way [Smith] has the votes." Second Avenue Sagas breaks down some problems with the Senate plan.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told reporters, "If the Senate's plan is the only plan that they can pass that accomplishes that goal in the Senate, then we will look at it very seriously." Silver, who supported a plan that included tolling East River and Harlem River Bridges (an idea which some Democratic State Senators hated), also said that if the Senate plan failed, he'd put the plan with tolls up for a vote.