As In Funny Ha-Ha

A “spur of the moment, kind of a humorous kind of thing”:

An ambitious Queens councilman is raising eyebrows by appearing in paid ads for an auto dealership while sponsoring legislation urging New Yorkers to buy new cars.

“Are you going to buy a Paragon Honda hybrid?” WABC radio host Curtis Sliwa asked Councilman Hiram Monserrate in one of two ads on the station last month.

“Well, Curtis, the answer to that is absolutely yes,” Monserrate responded in the live spot. “My next car will be a hybrid, and I’ll be shopping at Paragon.”

. . .

The move is especially unusual because Monserrate is pushing a law that would benefit Paragon, lifting fees at parking meters and municipal lots for a year after drivers buy a hybrid vehicle. Monserrate announced the legislation at Paragon’s Woodside location in March.

Monserrate is also backing two Council resolutions asking the state for tax breaks for owners of hybrid vehicles.

. . .

Monserrate, a Democrat, said he was not paid to be in the ads. Campaign finance records showed no contributions to him from Paragon or its employees.

“I had the opportunity for 15 seconds to talk about a very important bill,” he said. He didn’t expect Sliwa to put him on the spot about shopping at Paragon, said Monserrate, who owns a traditional Honda Civic he did not buy at the dealership.

“It was spur of the moment,” he said. “It was kind of a humorous kind of thing.”

Earler: You Know What Else Protects The Environment? Taking The Bus, Subway Or — Wow, Just Think Of It! — Even Walking.

If I Give You Two Dollars And Get Back Three Dollars . . .

You could look at it this way, as in “Thanks, Shelly”:

With the death of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan, a host of mass transit projects promised to skeptical lawmakers to garner their votes is in danger. For instance, Staten Island will not get 33 new express buses that would have been purchased with a federal grant attached to the mayor’s proposal.

The borough also may not benefit from the North Shore Alternatives Study that would have examined solutions to ease the commutes between the Island and Manhattan and the Island and Jersey City. The long-talked-about study also would have explored the restoration of rail service on the former North Shore Rail right of way.

The study, which would cost at least $3 million, was included in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $29.5 billion, five-year capital plan. Transportation sources say the long-term items in the under-funded plan would be among the first casualties as the agency scrambles to find a source of funding to compensate for the $354 million from the federal government that would have attended congestion pricing.

Or you could realize that the $200-plus million the city was going to spend on implementing congestion pricing or the $767 million the MTA was going to supposedly spend to accommodate new riders would buy a whole lot of of express buses . . .

Lessons Learned In A Busy Week . . .

$354 million isn’t as much as you think, and $1 billion is significantly harder to just slip in unnoticed:

Critics of Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan are charging that the revised legislation under consideration in Albany rests on an accounting trick that makes it appear as if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey would share in the costs by contributing $1 billion toward the program.

In fact, as critics of congestion pricing are pointing out, the $1 billion is not a new source of money but would be taken out of capital funds that the authority has already set aside for the state under its 10-year capital projects plan, which was approved in December 2006.

“The use of Port Authority funds is a sleight of hand to disguise flaws in the plans,” a Democratic assemblyman of Queens, Michael Gianaris, said.

. . .

Under the revised legislation, if the Port Authority didn’t contribute $1 billion toward the MTA capital plan, New Jersey motorists using the Hudson River crossings would be forced to pay up to $3 more in congestion fees.

“This amended bill also now includes provisions that will make it certain that commuters who use Hudson River Port Authority crossings are contributing their share of revenue to the MTA capital plan, which will result in more funds for mass transit improvements throughout our region,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement.

After the amended bill was announced, critics of congestion pricing in the Legislature wondered where the Port Authority money would come from.

A high-level Assembly aide said yesterday that critics were “suspicious” of the source of the funds but hadn’t determined what part of the Port Authority budget would be used.

As it turns out, according to public officials, the authority money exists as unallocated funds for regional transportation projects essentially under the control of New York’s governor.

“Practically, all it would do would be to shift money from other New York projects, and that is a three-card Monte game,” a Democratic assemblyman of Westchester, Richard Brodsky, said.

Budget Cuts Run Deep; Administration Even Asks City Council Members To Curtail Funding Of Phantom Community Groups

Budget problems fixed . . . that was painless:

The New York City Council has appropriated millions in taxpayer dollars in recent years to organizations that did not exist, Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn disclosed on Thursday.

The maneuver, in which funds were set aside for fictitious groups like the Coalition of Informed Individuals and Senior Citizens for Equality, allowed Council members to spend the money later on community programs they supported without obtaining the mayor’s approval.

The practice dates to at least 2001 and encompasses the tenures of the previous two speakers, Peter F. Vallone Sr., and Gifford Miller, according to Ms. Quinn.

Since 2001, about $17.4 million has been budgeted for dozens of fake community groups, according to documents provided by Ms. Quinn’s office.

“I was obviously deeply troubled when I found out about this information,” Ms. Quinn said at a news conference on Thursday, after The New York Post reported on the practice. “I had no knowledge of it; I did not know this was the practice. It’s something I believe is completely inappropriate and should not have gone on, and will no longer go on.”

[Insert Fancy New Program] Is The Most Powerful Policy Tool At The Hands Of City Officials To Improve [Insert Intractable Problem Here], And Protect Our Quality Of Life By Reducing [Insert Unwanted Behavior Here], Promoting [Insert Adverbally Positive Attribute Here], And Financing 21st Century Improvements To Our [Insert Vitally Important Infrastructure Here]

The fact is, there are many ways to fritter away $354 million:

Champions of congestion pricing wonder why any politician would turn down $354 million. The feds have offered just that to implement Mayor Bloomberg’s traffic fee.

But the city and the state already spend that kind of dough on projects that don’t seem as vital as mass transit.

They’ve committed $403 million to the Yankee Stadium project, for example, and just one city program granted $409 million in property tax breaks last year to Midtown office towers like the MetLife Building and such fast-food outlets as McDonald’s.

City workers have staged protests against a $410 million payroll system that uses biometric devices, including palm scanners. “They say it will reduce ‘buddy punching,'” said a union spokesman, “but we’ve not had one case of that in ten years.”

“While $354 million sounds like a huge amount of money, it will be almost gone before you start congestion pricing,” said Brooklyn Councilman Lewis Fidler.

The MTA puts its necessary upgrades at $767 million. The tolling system would take $73 million, and the operating cost is $62 annually.