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Last night, the State Senate followed the Assembly's lead and passed a bill to continue New York City's bus lane camera enforcement program and expand it to an additional 10 bus routes. The bill now awaits Governor Andrew Cuomo's signature.

The TWU's attempt to weaken traffic safety laws cleared the State Senate but seems to be encountering more resistance in the Assembly. (You can contact your Assembly rep here to urge a "No" vote.) Meanwhile, there are there are several good bills that the Senate passed which have yet to come up for a vote in the Assembly.

Update 10:06 p.m.: The story has been updated to reflect the final official vote tally in the Assembly of 79-60. Tonight, the Senate passed its companion bill with an unofficial vote tally of 51 in favor and 8 opposed.

In 1981, then-MTA Chair Richard Ravitch wrote to Governor Hugh Carey, pleading for action "to meet the increasingly desperate situation of public transit in New York." Carey responded by moving a suite of measures through Albany that led to the MTA's first five-year capital program. Investments made through the capital program brought the transit system back from the brink, leading to vast improvements in reliability and convenience, and the city flourished.