State Legislature

It's been a long road for Tom Prendergast to become the chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. After the previous MTA chair, Joe Lhota, split to run for mayor, it took Governor Cuomo more than three months to nominate Prendergast. Then his confirmation hearing was put on hold for more than two months by Senate Transportation Committee chair Charles Fuschillo. But yesterday afternoon, on the final day of the legislative session, Prendergast secured a unanimous vote of approval from Fuschillo's committee.

It appears The speed camera bill will clear has cleared the Assembly, but the effort to protect NYC school kids from reckless drivers is in trouble in the State Senate.

If you were waiting for the right moment to hit the phones in support of speed cameras, now would be good.

The transit lockbox bill, which would require Albany to disclose the impacts of any raid of dedicated transit funds, passed both the Senate and Assembly unanimously in the final days of the legislative session, reports the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. It now heads to Governor Andrew Cuomo's desk. A nearly identical bill reached Cuomo in 2011, but the governor gutted the disclosure provision and signed a toothless bill. This time around, will Cuomo put pen to paper and protect transit riders?

The elimination of flashing blue lights on the MTA's Select Bus Service vehicles is probably the most absurd transit setback of the past year. Since New York state law limits the use of flashing blues to volunteer firefighters, the MTA caved in to pressure from Staten Island pols and took them off SBS buses this January.

Albany has long used the MTA as a piggy bank, raiding dedicated transit funds on a regular basis to cover gaps in the state budget. As a result, straphangers are squeezed as transit agencies resort to fare hikes and service cuts to make up the difference.

This afternoon, the City Council passed a home rule resolution calling on Albany to pass legislation enabling speed enforcement cameras in school zones. The last time there was action on speed camera legislation, more than two months ago, Mayor Bloomberg was chastising state senators Marty Golden, Simcha Felder, and Dean Skelos for torpedoing the program in the Senate's budget legislation after the Assembly moved ahead with automated enforcement in its budget proposal. Now it looks like a more restricted version of that bill has a good shot at passing.

A bill targeted at NYPD’s self-imposed ban on penalizing motorists for careless driving has cleared the State Senate, but awaits passage in the Assembly.

It's no joke -- Jeff Klein is taking up the cause of NYC speed cameras in the State Senate.