Like it or not, drivers will likely soon have to pay anywhere they cross the East and Harlem rivers.
Speaker Sheldon Silver all but guaranteed that the state Assembly would approve $2 tolls on 13 crossings that historically have been popular free alternatives to the Queens Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels and the RFK/Triborough Bridge, where E-ZPass tolls are $4.15 and cash tolls $5.
Silver said the option facing lawmakers was simple: Add tolls to the bridges to rescue the MTA from a $1.2 billion budget deficit, or force crippling service cuts and fare hikes on millions of transit riders.
“I believe [the $2 tolls] will exist and I’ll tell you why,” Silver told The Post yesterday.
“Nobody likes taxes and no one likes tolls. But they think the other alternative is much worse. I say it’s a plan I think I can get support for in the Assembly.”
East River tolls are despised by outer-borough Democratic lawmakers, whose party now holds majorities in both houses of the Legislature.
But numerous legislators said Silver’s unusually overt support for the proposal would pave the way for Assembly passage and put great pressure on the state Senate, where a handful of Democratic holdouts are threatening to block any toll.
“It’s done,” said Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn). “I’ve never seen Shelly stick his neck out and lose a hair. If he’s out there, I imagine there’s some agreement with the Senate Democrats to move this bill.”
Golden called East River bridge tolls “offensive to the middle class,” but said he thought Silver’s support would not bode well for the opposition.
The $2 tolls are a compromise from a plan to impose $5 tolls on the free bridges suggested by former MTA chief Richard Ravitch.
He authored an MTA bailout plan that also includes a tax of 34 cents for every $100 of business payroll.
Ravitch, along with a dozen environmental, mass-transit and construction organizations, endorsed Silver’s plan yesterday.
“It is clearly a compromise in order to get the votes,” Ravitch said.
His original $5 toll idea would bring in $1 billion to MTA’s coffers each year, with $400 million for maintaining the spans and $600 million for expanded bus service in the outer boroughs.
Although Silver’s plan would bring in “a couple hundred million less” and “cut back on the bus revenues,” Ravitch was still in favor of the compromise.
According to an aide, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) is “moving closer to a bill similar” to what Silver proposed, with tolls set at $2.