The ‘Party of No’ Comes to New York
May 5, 2009
After Plan to Save Mass Transit Service Emerges, Senate Republicans in Partisan Effort to Oppose Deal and Usher in ‘Doomsday Budget’
(Albany, N.Y.) After Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith announced that he has secured enough votes to pass a funding plan that would avert severe mass transit fare hikes and service cuts in the counties served by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Senate Republicans are putting politics before people by summarily opposing the plan and not offering any realistic alternatives.
Democrats hit back against the holdouts, who are failing New Yorkers by choosing to sit back and do nothing but complain while Democrats work to find a solution that is fair to the state’s 19 million residents.
“It’s unfortunate that Republican senators all over the state are putting politics before people and withholding support for the Senate’s MTA plan just because it has been drafted by Democrats,” said Democratic Senate Campaign Committee spokesman Shams Tarek. “This plan fully addresses an immediate crisis at hand for millions of transit riders and saves or creates jobs for countless families upstate. It’s not just in Washington that Republicans are the ‘Party of No’; this cynical, passive-aggressive posture is alive and well in Albany, too. It’s incredibly frustrating.”
Upstate Republican State Senators George Winner, Tom Libous, Joseph Griffo and Elizabeth Little are all holding out against Majority Leader Smith’s MTA plan despite the fact that it imposes no taxes or fees in their districts yet saves or creates countless jobs in their districts. Many trains, buses and related parts are manufactured in their districts, providing a critical link between the MTA and their local economies.
“Workers all over upstate New York should be asking Senators Winner, Libous, Griffo and Little why they are putting party politics before the need to protect jobs and keep food on the table,” Tarek said. “These Republican senators are disciplined in the absolute worst way, voting strictly with their party even though it means voting against their constituents.”
On Long Island, where Democratic Senators Craig Johnson and Brian Foley have stated they are confident the plan announced yesterday will be fair for residents there, the other seven senators, all Republicans, are also obstructing progress.
“By refusing to support a plan that averts severe fare hikes and service cuts on the LIRR, Long Island Republicans are saying they want to cut their constituents off from a critical lifeline for the local economy, all in the name of party solidarity” Tarek said. “They seem to want Albany to be just as gridlocked as the Long Island Expressway on a summer Friday afternoon.”
The DSCC also released a robocall today (attached) that was recently sent to homes in Senator Kemp Hannon’s Long Island district urging voters to call his office and tell him to “stop playing games” over the fate of the LIRR. A similar, localized call has gone into other Republican districts in the state as well.
In New York City, where many if not most of the state’s mass transit riders reside, Republican Senators Frank Padavan, Marty Golden and Andrew Lanza are also possible holdouts on the MTA bailout announced yesterday and currently in final negotiations.
“Senators Padavan, Golden and Lanza should understand the urgency of this matter more than any of their colleagues in the Republican conference,” Tarek said. “If they vote against this plan, they’ll have to explain how that is in the best interest of their constituents and not merely blind party politics.”
Posted by News LI Editor · Filed Under Politics
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2 Responses to “The ‘Party of No’ Comes to New York”
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The party of no? Um, who do you think should pay for mass transit? How about we try putting the obligation on the people who use the system? As long as we keep trying to mask the true cost of things by shifting responsibility for the costs to others, we’ll continue to foster inefficiency and prevent reasonable alternatives from emerging.
- Posted by: tom mc
It’s not the fairest plan in the world, but something absolutely NEEDED to get passed.
You have to give Paterson credit for being just about the only person in Albany who recognized the time-sensitivity of this issue. If he hadn’t been pushing this process along and calling emergency sessions, I don’t see this resolution being passed by the end the month, which is when the MTA would supposedly enact its “doomsday budget.”
That would have causes absolute crisis in NYC, believe me.
- Posted by: DanB