There will be no vote in the Assembly. "The conference has decided that they are not prepared to do congestion pricing," said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver after emerging from behind closed doors where he was closested with members of his Democratic majority. "I think you can speak to the members of the conferene who have made that determination."

"Many of them just don't believe in the concept," the speaker continued. "Many of them think this bill is flawed. So an overwhelming majority of the conference that opposes congestion pricing, and for that reason, the congestion pricing bill did not have anywhere near a majority of the Democratic conference, and will not be on the floor of the Assembly."

From a personal standpoint, Silver said he is "more inclined to admit we must do something about congestion and this is a plan with some work that could work, but it needs amendments." The mayor's people have been complaining that Silver's staff has been unavailable to them all weekend. They insisted they were ready to have meetings and at least talk about amending their plan, despite the fact that Bloomberg himself said yesterday that he would accept no more changes.

Silver referenced Bloomberg's comments (made in Brooklyn yesterday), saying: "I've been speakign to him throughout this process..I don't believe that there are any amendments, other than total exclusion, that would satisfy the members of this conference." "They made a decision," Silver said of his members. "If I were making the decision alone, I might have made a different decision."

(The Daily Politics, 08/04/2008)