Levy Stops MTA Bond Authorization
In an April 30 letter to NY State Transportation Commissioner John Daly, State Senate Transportation Chair Norman Levy (R-Merrick) used his seat on the MTA Capital Program Review Board to veto a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bond resolution backed by petroleum business tax revenues worth up to $2 billion. This bonding, to pay for city transit and commuter rail station rehabilitation, track work and other capital programs had been held up by Governor Pataki for over a year. Levy's letter said the Senate intends "to consider the MTA Dedicated Tax Fund Bond Resolution simultaneously with the enactment into law of a new State highway and bridge program." This has been alternatively interpreted to mean that Levy will hold the transit rebuilding work hostage to full funding in this year's budget for Governor Pataki's expanded highway program, or that he was angered by recent MTA capital plan concessions to critics in the State Assembly. Why the former is necessary is unclear, since no opposition to the road building plan is evident in the Democratic-controlled Assembly.
