By Henry Goldman and Martin Z Braun, Bloomberg; March 5, 2019
The leader of New York’s City Council vowed to usurp the state’s power to set local tax policy and pass congestion pricing on its own if Governor Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are unable to agree on a plan and called for a city takeover of the embattled subway system.
“If Albany doesn’t pass congestion pricing this session, the City Council will,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson told an audience of elected officials and policy makers in Long Island City, in his version of a “State of the City” speech. It contained wide-ranging and sometimes Utopian proposals that would require extensive changes to the state’s laws and its constitution, including a call for the city to take over the New York City Transit, the massive agency that runs the subway and bus system.