Be Thankful — You Will Pay A Quarter Of A Billion Dollars So That They Can Charge You Even More Money In Tolls

So if New York City spends $223 million on a congestion-pricing pilot project, the federal government will provide money for bus lanes and bus depots:

The federal government said on Tuesday that it would provide $354 million for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s broad plan to reduce traffic, but left it to the city to come up with more than $200 million needed for the most controversial part of the plan: a system to charge people who drive into Manhattan.

In addition, under the agreement outlined by the United States secretary of transportation, Mary E. Peters, the release of the funds is contingent upon the City Council’s and the State Legislature’s approving the plan, including the new fee on drivers, by next March.

The announcement was mixed news for Mr. Bloomberg, who is trying to establish the first broad-based congestion pricing program in the country, and to raise his national profile on environmental issues. While the federal support helps to advance his initiative, it is now up to the mayor to find the money — through borrowing, appropriation, or perhaps from a private corporation — for what has been seen as the centerpiece of the plan, the new charge on drivers.

In its federal application, the city estimated that it would cost $223 million to install a computerized system to monitor traffic and impose the fee on cars entering the busiest parts of Manhattan, and asked the United States to cover $179 million of that. But the Department of Transportation said it would contribute only $10 million to that initiative. Most of what the department agreed to provide on Tuesday is designated for the construction of bus depots and other mass transit improvements.

Mr. Bloomberg, at a press conference in the Bronx shortly after the announcement, played down the lack of federal money for congestion pricing.

“I think that rather than look at the money we didn’t get, we should look at the money we did get,” he said. “It’s a unique opportunity for New York, and we should really say, thank you.”