Mayor bemoans traffic-fee defeat

With his traffic-fee proposal all but dead, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg lashed out at lawmakers in Albany who blocked it, saying they were gutless and had jeopardized a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

A day earlier, the city missed a deadline to qualify for hundreds of millions of federal dollars for the so-called congestion-pricing program. Bloomberg blamed the state Legislature for failing to act on the proposal before adjourning.

“New York City is today poorer because of Albany’s inaction yesterday, and I think sadly it appears that we jeopardized, at best, and probably lost, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Bloomberg said.

The city’s plan, similar to systems in London and Singapore, called for an $8 toll for cars and a $21 toll for trucks entering Manhattan’s most heavily traveled business district during workdays. The money was to go toward transportation improvements.