Commentary: Your move, Albany

Federal transportation officials significantly upped the ante this week in the debate over New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's bid to reduce traffic congestion in the Big Apple.

The carrot: $354 million to pay for new buses and better subways if the state Legislature adopts some version of

Bloomberg's so-called "congestion pricing" concept is widely supported by business, environmental and transportation leaders. Even the unions are on board. While most Manhattanites like the idea, it has been spurned by the outer boroughs and lawmakers from the Island, who argue that the fees are just another commuter tax.

Call it what you will, but there is no avoiding the grim truth that the city's traffic fumes are a significant health hazard, not only for residents of the region but for the increasingly fragile ecosystem we call Planet Earth. That's not to mention the estimated $13 billion and 50,000 jobs lost to the region each year because of excessive traffic, or the almost 50 hours a year the average New York commuter now spends sitting in traffic.

Paying extra to drive in Manhattan may be distasteful, but the alternatives are indigestible.

The Legislature has created a 17-member commission to come up with a cure for New York's traffic problems and we fervently hope it does not create a jam of its own. The federal deadline allows a short seven months for the commission to approve, or improve upon, Bloomberg's plan and win nods from the Legislature and New York City Council.

While Manhattan traffic will produce more than 23,000 tons of soot in that period, seven months is but a blink of a pol's eye. Our health, and hundreds of millions in federal aid, deserve quick action.

A foreign idea

You would think the county just east of JFK International would have stumbled upon the idea of foreign trade zones by now, but, well, no.

So, when longtime Nassau-based fabrics maker Kravet Inc. needed help, it had to come from Suffolk County, which has had an FTZ at Islip's MacArthur Airport for almost 30 years. Today, that zone hosts 27 companies and more than 400 workers.

In a deal brokered by increasingly regionally focused Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, the two counties agreed to extend the Suffolk zone to Bethpage, giving Kravet the benefits of an FTZ without having to move.

Patrick Duggan, the Nassau economic development chief, says his county "intends" to apply for an FTZ, providing export companies there the chance to reduce costs by avoiding custom duties on imported raw materials and exported products.

It's a cutthroat global economy, Nassau. Move fast.

Credit: LIBN Staff