BP MARKOWITZ STATEMENT ON EAST RIVER AND HARLEM RIVER BRIDGE TOLLS

“I applaud the Senate Democratic majority—particularly Brooklyn’s own Senator Kruger and others who vocally opposed tolling our bridges—for successfully fighting to safeguard residents of Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx from shouldering a burden that should be shared by everyone in the 12-county MTA region. I have said all along that East River and Harlem River Bridge tolls are a discriminatory tax and a ‘backdoor’ to congestion pricing, and I am thrilled Governor Paterson and legislative leaders have apparently taken them off the table for good. I have every confidence that the Governor, Majority Leader Smith and Speaker Silver will approve a plan that will help alleviate the MTA’s draconian fare hikes and service cuts while ensuring that keeping fares down and our subways and buses running is the responsibility of all—not just a select few.”