Ben Fried

Governor Andrew Cuomo focused heavily on jobs and the economy in his 2012 State of the State address this afternoon. He also devoted a few minutes to his infrastructure initiatives. Yet, despite serving as chief executive of the state where residents depend the most on transit service and transit infrastructure for access to jobs, Cuomo spent about as much time discussing the MTA as the 1953 Corvette.

New York City transit riders might have taken some small measure of satisfaction from the sight of Carl Kruger resigning from the State Senate earlier this week. Pleading guilty to federal corruption charges, Kruger became the third member of the "Fare Hike Four" -- the gang who killed a 2009 plan to fund transit by putting a price on NYC's free bridges -- to exit Albany in disgrace. Two others, Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate, were run out of town by voters and their fellow legislators under clouds of scandal. Ruben Diaz, Sr. is the only one who remains, reduced to irrelevance now that marriage equality is the law of the land and the Republicans control the Senate.

Earlier this week, Streetsblog contributor Charles Komanoff crunched the numbers to see what could happen if Governor Andrew Cuomo doesn't follow through on his pledge to restore the $320 million in MTA funding cuts he signed into law on Monday. The cost to commuters, the economy, and public health, he found, could substantially outweigh the value of the tax relief.

Governor Andrew Cuomo today named Joseph Lhota as his pick to run the nation's largest transit system. Lhota, a former deputy mayor and budget director under mayor Rudy Giuliani, will officially hold the position of MTA CEO after a confirmation vote by the New York State Senate, which is not expected to pose much of a hurdle.

At a press conference today, Governor Cuomo touted a new plan to introduce a "rational" pricing mechanism to help the state provide critical resources to New York residents. He was talking, of course, about SUNY tuition, which will be structured to rise five percent a year for the next five years.

With about 70 days to go until Jay Walder puts in his last day as MTA CEO, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he has assembled a search committee to help pinpoint the right candidate to take over the nation's largest transit agency.

Ever since the State Senate killed bridge tolls in the 2009 MTA funding package, the question has lingered: How is Albany going to finish the job and pay for the final three years of the MTA's five-year capital program?

Andrew Cuomo said today that he will introduce a bill to toughen state provisions intended to protect people from drivers who text or use portable electronic devices of any sort behind the wheel. The bill closes loopholes and adds stricter penalties for distracted driving, which contributes to more than 10,000 crashes per year in New York state.

Celeste Katz at the Daily Politics has the scoop. Here's the statement from the western Queens Assemblyman who envisioned licenses on every bike and cameras in every bike lane:

Remember last month when Council Member Eric Ulrich came out with the idea of creating a complicated new bureaucracy to register and identify New Yorkers who ride bikes, a proposal that would build an expensive and redundant personal identification system on top of our existing ID systems, opening the door to increased harassment of cyclists by law enforcement?