Title: Speed Cameras Coming for Bridges and Tunnels

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. On April 1st, the day of the new New York state fiscal year, you might say there was black smoke rising from the Capitol in Albany. No budget yet. April 2nd, more black smoke. April 3rd, April 4th. Only last night, May 8th, did it turn to white smoke coming out of Albany, where lawmakers finally passed a $254 billion state budget. It was due April 1st, but better late than never, I guess. It's the latest the budget has been since 2010, when lawmakers couldn't agree until August of that year, but what's in the budget, and will it endear New Yorkers to Governor Hochul as she seeks reelection next year?

Surely that was part of the calculus when the idea of inflation rebate checks came to her mind. We'll tell you when they're coming and to whom, but perhaps the speed cameras coming to bridges and tunnels might be less popular with drivers moving to and from the boroughs. That's a new development, and we'll talk about that and more. Joining me now with his reporting on all the legislation coming from the state Capitol is WNYC and Gothamist Albany reporter Jon Campbell. Hey, Jon.

Jon Campbell: Hey, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Speed cameras first. The MTA will be installing speed cameras, I see, on bridges and tunnels. Which bridges and tunnels will get them, and how did this come about?

Jon Campbell: Just to be clear, it is speed cameras in work zones on MTA bridges and tunnels, and it's any of the seven MTA bridges and two tunnels. That's things like the Verrazano Bridge, the Hugh Carey Tunnel, the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, the RFK Bridge, and on and on. What this does is--

Brian Lehrer: In work zones, though-- In the work zones, while they're jackhammering away and everything, don't those bridges and tunnels get narrowed to one lane anyway, and you slow to a crawl anyway?

Jon Campbell: That's the idea. They can only put these cameras up when there is construction and when the speed limit is reduced in a work zone. This is based on a pilot program that they've already implemented on the State Thruway and on state DOT highways, up to 30 of these zones across the state. It essentially issues an automatic ticket if you speed. If you violate that work zone speed limit, you get an automated ticket sent to the home of the owner of the vehicle, the registered owner of the vehicle. It's $50 for a first offense, $75 for a second, and $100 for every offense after that.

Brian Lehrer: Why not put them up on bridges and Tunnels all the time?

Jon Campbell: That was something that was under debate. This was originally brought up as a pilot program. They wanted to put this up on the Thruway on DOT to get a sense of how much money it would bring in, how effective it would be on getting people to slow down. They expanded this pilot a little bit this year to the MTA bridges and tunnels, as well as the Bridge Authority bridges. Those are those five Hudson River bridges north of the Tappan Zee Bridge, like the Rip Van Winkle Bridge if you keep going up.

Brian Lehrer: Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge.

Jon Campbell: Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: Not the walkway across the Hudson, which I love in Poughkeepsie, but no cars there.

Jon Campbell: Just while we're plugging bridges you can walk over, the walkway on the Tappan Zee Bridge is really neat, or the Mario Cuomo Bridge, if you want to use the new vernacular.

Brian Lehrer: I biked it, which is a great experience. Anyway, Go ahead.

Jon Campbell: Yes, it's really neat. Anyway, the governor wanted to make it permanent. The legislature agreed to a five-year extension, it'll go through 2031, and expanded it to MTA bridges and tunnels, and these Bridge Authority bridges. I think you'll probably see pushes to expand it in the future, too.

Brian Lehrer: Trucks traveling between Brooklyn and Queens also have to be on the lookout now as well, not just in work zones. Do I have that right?

Jon Campbell: Yes. There was a similar pilot program that's being expanded, and this is something that has to do with the weight of trucks. On the BQE right now, there are weight-in-motion sensors, basically. It can tell without you having to stop and get on a scale. Trucks sometimes have to get on scales when they're traveling on highways. It can tell as you drive through, how heavy your truck is, whether you're beyond the limits for the BQE. That got an expansion here as well to some other areas, the Queensborough Bridge, the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge. It's mostly to bridges in that area. Another idea where this was a pilot program. They're expanding it a little bit, seeing if it continues to work.

Brian Lehrer: Why are speed cameras as controversial as they are? This is a big source of debate on Long Island as well. 300-something people in New York City died by murder last year. 200-something people in New York died by car crash last year. I know that's by accident, but still, cars turn out to be about two-thirds as dangerous as people who want to kill you on purpose. I would think it's basic public safety, law and order stuff. Who's against more widespread use of speed cameras?

Jon Campbell: People who have to pay the tickets. That's for one. It costs people money. It is easier to nab you for a ticket. The tickets are less than maybe a traditional speeding ticket would be, but they're mailed straight to your home. It's easy for people who have a lead foot to rack up many of those tickets. Actually, we're dealing with that in the city of Albany right now, where they just put up speed cameras in school zones and people are racking up five, six, seven tickets in any period of time.

Advocates for that would say, "Good, this is supposed to be a deterrent to speeding." Especially in a work zone like we're talking about with these bridges or in school zones in some areas of the state that have these speed cameras in school zones, it does appear to be an effective deterrent to people. If you're just driving through those zones, people drive slower than they would if there's just a regular speed limit sign and maybe a cop nabs you, but you take your chances and you go faster year. That's the basic argument there.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, if you want to call in on speed cameras, pro or con, 212-433-WNYC. Call or text for Jon Campbell, our Albany reporter, 212-433-9692, with his latest pilot program coming out of Albany. Let's go on to the budget in the meantime. It's finally here, $254 billion. Hochul and State Democrats have made affordability one of the primary goals of their agenda this year, especially after the results of the election last year and how there seemed to be a backlash against the Democratic Party based on inflation. Part of that affordability agenda is the inflation rebate checks, as they're calling them, going out to New Yorkers as part of this budget. Give us the details.

Jon Campbell: This is going to be $2 billion worth of checks going to more than 8 million tax filers in New York, which is about 3/4 of all the tax filers in New York. They're checks of anywhere from $150 to $400. They should be in your mailbox later this year. I've heard some estimates of maybe the fall, just because it does take a lot of administrative time to figure out how to send 8 million checks to people. Basically, here's how it works. If you are a married filer, if you file your taxes jointly with your partner, you're eligible if you made less than $300,000 in adjusted gross income in 2023. Yes, I said 2023.

Why is that? Because that's really the most complete data the state has from a full year. You would file your 2424 taxes in 2025. There's still some people who have extensions, they haven't submitted them in yet. The state has to go the whole way back to 2023 for this. If you made between $0 and $150,000 as a married joint filer, you get $400. If you make between $150,000 and $300,000, you get $300. For individuals, if you made less than $75,000, you get $200. If you made between $75,000 and $150,000, you get $150.

Brian Lehrer: By the way, someone writes after I talked about murders versus death by car, which are accidents-- Nobody kills you with a car on purpose. Almost nobody. There are terrorists who have done that. I know a lot of people don't like the word accident. I don't call car crashes accidents, generally. Nevertheless, if there's a crash, the driver killed you by accident, but of course, I'll acknowledge almost every advocate will tell you car crashes are preventable with better road design, slower speed limits.

Driving a car does not have to result in death as frequently as it does. If you want to say, and it's justifiable, that it's not an accident, in that, policy doesn't have the will. Policymakers don't have the will to prevent them. That's the point I was making anyway. Just to acknowledge that.

Jon Campbell: Actually,-

Brian Lehrer: Yes, go ahead.

Jon Campbell: -can I jump in with a thing that didn't make the budget? You talked about road design, and that set off an alarm bell in my head. One of the things the governor did propose in her original budget was she wanted to, what's known as daylight crosswalks near schools in New York City. What that means is you would change state law to prohibit parking within 20ft of crosswalks in those elementary school zones within New York City.

The idea is that you make more space near the crosswalks, that maybe you have a better chance of peeking around when you're crossing the street, looking both ways, you can see the traffic better coming each way, and to try to cut down on those crashes or accidents, however you want to put it. That did not make it in the final budget. That was stripped out of the final budget. That's one that Governor Hochul was not able to get.

Brian Lehrer: Jon, did we finish on the rebate checks? Did we get to what income qualifies you for one, and how big they're going to be?

Jon Campbell: Yes, we did. Basically, less than $300,000, you'll get a check if you are married and filed jointly. Less than $150,000 of income if you are an individual filer, you'll get a check of anywhere from $150 to $400.

Brian Lehrer: You'd get it automatically based on your New York State income tax return, or you have to file for it.

Jon Campbell: Yes. That's my understanding is that's what both the tax department and the Division of Budget have told me. You'll automatically get those checks in the mail later this year.

Brian Lehrer: If we're talking about an affordability agenda, a few hundred-dollar rebate checks, it's nice, but it's not going to solve child care, which is one of the major costs for families around the state, certainly in the city. The state did include here $400 million for what's called the Child Care Assistance Program, which provides subsidized childcare and after-school to more than 80,000 New York City families and more across the state, but this has caused tension between the state and the Adams administration. What's the argument?

Jon Campbell: This is an issue where there's a child care voucher program available to tens of thousands of New Yorkers, particularly in New York City, it's very, very popular. It expanded eligibility. It grew really, really rapidly. It's very, very popular. It faced this fiscal cliff, where they need funding from somewhere to keep these vouchers going in order to keep the program funded. Actually, the governor reduced those inflation rebate checks that we just talked about to help pay for this program and said the state will put up $350 million to help New York City with this, but New York City will also have to put in $350 million to get that money. It's a match, basically.

That is really controversial within the city. The city is not happy. The Adams administration is not happy about that because they say, "This is a state program. It's always been a state program. The state told us, 'Enroll as many people as you can in this program.' We did, and now we're going to have to come up with $350 million for it?" That is something that they are angry about at this point. It's caused this stalemate. We're not quite sure where it will come through. Randy Mastro, the deputy mayor, did say earlier this week that they would be pausing enrollment in that program, but if the state city is willing to put that $350 million up, that's going to be a battle coming up here.

Brian Lehrer: Let me take some of these speed camera calls that are coming in, pro and con. We're going to start with Nicole in Pelham, definitely, con. Nicole, you're at WNYC. Hello.

Nicole: Hi. I don't know if I would say I'm con all speed cameras, but they seem a little, pardon the pun, hokey. My husband was driving home late on a Sunday night on a highway, and he gets a ticket in the mail a week later. He said there was nobody. He said it was midnight on a Sunday night, there was no work anywhere, but he got a $50 speeding ticket for speeding in a work zone.

Then I recently went to Maimonides Hospital to visit my mother three days in a row. The following week, I get three tickets in the mail, and it said that I was speeding in a school zone. I said, "I don't remember seeing a school. I would never speed in a school zone." We looked it up. There was a school 10 blocks away. It feels a little like a money grab to me. I know that they want people to drive slower in New York City, I applaud that, and in New York State in general, but it seems a little bit of like snatching it where you can.

Brian Lehrer: Nicole, thank you. Jon, I know other people, personally, who feel like, "Wait, they sent me a ticket for what? I didn't think I was speeding. I didn't know there was a school zone there." I don't know there's any way to dispute these.

Jon Campbell: There is a dispute process set up. It's not entirely clear how that would work for the MTA bridges and tunnels, but there already is a dispute process set up for the state DOT and Thruway zone tickets. There's some language in the budget that says that the MTA can partner with the state. Maybe it'll be the same system. That remains to be seen. I should say, too, the MTA, before they can do this, they have to hold a public hearing, and the board itself has to-- The MTA board has to approve this, too. It's not there yet, but the MTA did put out a statement yesterday that was very supportive of this.

Brian Lehrer: To get a speeding ticket of any kind, you have to be going more than 10 miles over the speed limit. Do I have that right?

Jon Campbell: That was a little confusing to me. In the law itself, that is generally the amount that has been bandied around in the past. I know I can speak from the city of Albany experience that it is set to 10 miles over. If you go less than 10 miles, you're not going to get a ticket, but I'm not entirely sure how it'll be set up for the MTA.

Brian Lehrer: Nate in Brooklyn, more of a fan. You're on WNYC. Hi, Nate.

Nate: Hey. First time, long time. I drive on Linden Boulevard a couple of times a week for a part-time job and have gotten my fair share of speeding tickets, I will say, but I really think it's a lot safer. Sorry, I'm on the street right now. You can hear those honks, but I think it's a lot safer to have them there. Linden Boulevard I could imagine, was a racetrack before they installed the cameras, and people drive really safely there now. I've never seen an accident driving to work, from work. I'm a big proponent of them, at least in this particular case.

Brian Lehrer: Even though you've gotten some tickets. Thank you very much. Is it true, Jon, that the speed camera tickets don't accrue points on your license?

Jon Campbell: Yes, that is true, and that's part of what I was mentioning, where it is less than an actual ticket. If you were to get pulled over for speeding by a police officer, you could face points. You would have a higher fine. There'd be a surcharge on that fine. It'd be a much more expensive endeavor for you, and you could get points. The automated camera tickets are not point-accruing tickets.

Brian Lehrer: Bud in Manhattan wants to relate the speed camera story to something that I didn't realize would come up in this segment, the mayoral race. Bud, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Bud: Yes, hello, Brian. I think a comment about this would be from Brad Lander. My understanding is that Brad Lander has had a dozen or so speeding tickets, some in school zones in recent years. I'd like to get his opinion on the speed cameras. That's all I really wanted to say. I'd be interested to know what his comment is.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much, Bud. I have this New York Post reference here from last year, which said Brad Lander has, "A grand total of 133 traffic summonses since 2013," and they say, "10 of the tickets were for speeding in school zones on camera." I don't think as our Albany reporter you would have confirmed that, but that was in a news organization, even though some people may think, "Oh, the New York Post," but they reported that as a fact that they researched. I don't know.

Jon Campbell: Let me expand it to another mayoral candidate. Streetsblog reported a week or two ago that former Governor Andrew Cuomo was hit with a couple of school speed zone camera violations in Manhattan in his beloved black Dodge Charger that he occasionally drives to campaign events.

Brian Lehrer: Another budget question. What will happen to the budget if Washington makes major cuts to federal funding for the state, which they're certainly talking about? We already had Mayor Adams' health commissioner on recently talking about what appears to be a $100 million cut to certain health services, based on their objection to what they see as diversity programs and things like that. That's at the city level.

Republican state legislators are already balking as well at the $254 billion price tag overall for the state budget. We had Congressman Mike Lawler on the show recently, Jon, who, of course, is a Republican from north of the city who's very seriously considering running for governor against Hochul next year. He brought that up right away. He said $254 billion for one year for the state government. That's more than Texas and Florida combined span from their state governments, and they have many more people. Each of them has more people than New York, and combined, they have a lot more people than New York.

You could argue, as I'm sure they will, if he gets the nomination, what we get for our money compared to Florida or Texas. There's an example of the partisan divide on the budget to begin with. Then, Washington may cut us under Trump.

Jon Campbell: That's something that Governor Hochul and legislative leaders have been asked about over and over and over again by reporters like myself and my colleagues. That is, "Why aren't we doing anything right now to essentially anticipate cuts?" Their answer in varying degrees has essentially been, "Well, we don't know what those cuts are going to be. We can summon lawmakers back to the Capitol later this year to deal with cuts if and when that happens. Now, at times, they've talked about that as a possibility. At times, it sounded more like a foregone conclusion.

It certainly seems to be more in the latter camp now after President Trump released his "skinny budget." The state budget is $254 billion. That's a $17 billion increase from last year, but it is both state and federal funds. It's a $254 billion budget. About $90 billion or so is federal. If the federal government makes cuts to Medicaid, makes cuts to education, that can have real, real impact in New York. There's a very, very good possibility that lawmakers will have to return to the Capitol later this year to deal with that.

Brian Lehrer: Jon Campbell will return to this show at that time and probably multiple times in between as he covers Albany for WNYC and Gothamist. Jon, thanks a lot.

Jon Campbell: Thank you, Brian

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