People

If not for Albany's theft of $260 million in dedicated transit tax revenues over the past two years, the sweeping service cuts enacted by the MTA in 2010 might have been avoided. Transit riders can't afford a repeat. With the MTA on track to take on even more debt, squeezing its operating budget for years to come, the transit system needs to retain all the funding that's supposed to go toward transit.

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.

Hugh Carey, governor of New York from 1975 to 1982, died yesterday at the age of 92. Even in an office held by the likes of Al Smith, Franklin Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller and Mario Cuomo, Carey was a giant; Mayor Ed Koch, who served at the same time as Carey, called him the greatest governor of the modern era.

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.

Crossing the Hudson River will get much more expensive under a proposed Port Authority plan to sharply increase tolls and fares on its four bridges, two tunnels and the PATH train. The increases are a result of the poor economy, the costs of rebuilding after the attacks of September 11, and the expensive repairs needed on the agency's aging infrastructure, said the Port Authority. Left unstated was the enormous cost of raids on the agency by the state governments of New York and New Jersey.

On July 18, Governor Cuomo signed into law legislation requiring that all large trucks driven on New York City streets have crossover mirrors to allow their drivers to see what's directly in front of them. The law will take effect 180 days after the governor signed it, in mid-January.

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?

Standing in front of two police cars and an enormous electronic traffic sign, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed tougher statewide distracted driving legislation into law this afternoon.

Could the state legislature get in on the costly, congestion-inducing parking minimum game? And could they do it at the site of Brooklyn's biggest transit hub? Under a proposal by Assembly Member James Brennan, that's exactly what would happen.