The plan by Michael Bloomberg, the New York City mayor, to introduce a congestion pricing scheme in Manhattan appears to be headed for a roadblock.
New York had been considered the frontrunner to win $500m (€363m, £246m) in federal transport funds to set up a congestion pricing plan that would have been the first London-style scheme in an American city.
But Monday’s deadline for applying for the funds may pass without an official application from New York City because of manoeuvring by state legislators opposed to the plan.
The plan calls for drivers to be charged $8 to enter the city’s busiest district during peak hours, with trucks paying $21. Advocates say it will reduce air pollution but opponents label it a tax on the middle class.
Mr Bloomberg rolled out his congestion pricing plan in April as part of a 25-year blueprint to make New York City more eco-friendly.
The proposal was greeted with fanfare by environmental groups but politicians representing the commuter-rich neighbourhoods outside Manhattan vowed to defeat it.
The congestion pricing scheme requires approval from state lawmakers, and some prominent state officials are backing it, including Eliot Spitzer, the governor, and Joe Bruno, the Republican who controls the state Senate.
But Sheldon Silver, the Democrat who controls the state’s lower house, has called his members to meet 150 miles away, in New York City, to discuss the issue.
Mr Bloomberg is set to travel on Monday to Albany, the state capital, to lobby members of the Senate who are gathering in a special session to consider the measure. If Mr Silver feels a deal favourable to his members is possible, then the assembly could travel to Albany to vote on Monday before the deadline passes.
However, Mr Silver told an interviewer last week that the federal money would be “nice” but not the “be-all and end-all”.
Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for Mr Spitzer, acknowledged that congestion pricing was a “major leap” for many state lawmakers. “We’re looking for a compromise,” she said.
The confusion has cast a cloud over New York’s prospects for the federal money, for which eight other cities have submitted proposals.
“Obviously, absent the federal dollars, the challenge [to introduce congestion pricing] is even greater,” said Kathryn Wylde, the chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, a business group.
“The difficulty we face is that it is much easier for our state government to do nothing than to do something that is difficult,” she said.
