Sheekey's Still Hopeful, Combative About Congestion Pricing

Midnight tonight is the deadline for state lawmakers to approve the mayor’s congestion pricing program in order to qualify for $354 million in federal transportation funds. It’s still not clear that there are enough votes to get it passed in either house of the legislature.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Joe Bruno supports it, but may not have enough votes on his side of the aisle to get it through. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been typically lukewarm and has consistently suggested that his members are not inclined to be in favor.

But Michael Bloomberg’s top aid, Kevin Sheekey, still thinks it’s less about cobbling votes behind closed doors and more about forcing legislators to vote on the issue publicly.

Sheekey, speaking on Fred Dicker’s radio show this morning, said, “If the leadership does put this bill on the floor in the Assembly or the Senate tonight, it will pass. I give you my thousand percent guarantee on that.”

And already, there is one environmental group threatening to punish critics of the plan by supporting their political opponents during the elections later this year. Sheekey denied the idea that the billionaire mayor has specific plans to punish those who voted against congestion pricing.

But Sheekey did begin to paint, rather vividly, what a loss of that transportation money could mean for New Yorkers.

“People remember what it was like in the 70s and the 80s, they remember the graffiti-strewn cars, they remember people feeling unsafe going down into the subways," he said. "Make no doubt that we can go back to that.”

Moments after Sheekey appeared on the show, Governor David Paterson’s press office announced the governor was canceling his scheduled appearance at the New York Times Center in the city , where he was to receive an award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

UPDATE: An aide to Paterson emailed to say the appearance tonight was canceled because of ongoing budget negotiations.