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Senator Does a U-Turn on Speed Cameras in School Zones

Having spent the last month getting clobbered, more or less around the clock, state Sen. Martin J. Golden this week called for the Senate to return to Albany, New York, so the city can continue to operate speed cameras in school zones.

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By
Jim Dwyer
, New York Times

Having spent the last month getting clobbered, more or less around the clock, state Sen. Martin J. Golden this week called for the Senate to return to Albany, New York, so the city can continue to operate speed cameras in school zones.

As things now stand, the law permitting their operation expires July 25 and it is imperative that it be extended, Golden, a Republican from Brooklyn, said in a statement.

You might think that would settle the matter, but on this one bill, there have been more feints and fake outs than the entire New York Knicks team managed this past season.

In fact, as of late afternoon Thursday, no announcement of a special session had been made by the Republican majority leader, John J. Flanagan.

Simple gamesmanship, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “Senator calls on the leader, it’s a game,” said Cuomo, who supports the cameras but has also been criticized for not using his leverage during budget negotiations to get them renewed.

Still, the governor’s point is sound: What Golden says is not necessarily what goes.

In fact, what Golden says may not be what he means: This is Albany, Jake.

The senator has rare expertise on speed cameras. Just this year, his personal vehicle has gotten three tickets for going at least 11 mph over the limit on streets in front of schools — during school hours. That gives him at least 10 such tickets since the camera law took effect in 2015.

Golden has held multiple positions on speed cameras in school zones, most of them at odds with one another, starting with dizzying turnarounds in 2013 and 2014 when the cameras were proposed.

In May, Golden signed on to one bill, sponsored by Sen. Jose Peralta, a Democrat, extending the speed cameras for four years.

A month later, on June 22, Golden co-sponsored yet another bill that would bring the cameras to an end in six months.

People calling his office in recent days have been assured the senator really supports the bill keeping the cameras on for four years, not the one he co-sponsored, which unplugs them in six months.

“That is something that should rightly be clarified,” John Quaglione, Golden’s chief of staff, said.

Yes, indeed.

The six-month bill was just meant to “make sure those cameras didn’t go dark,” Quaglione said. That would give the state Senate another regular session to pass legislation, he explained.

Which the Senate did not manage to do in the last session.

That brings us to another point.

In the perverse and twisted map of power in New York state, the country’s largest city must get permission from the state to enforce speed limits on the streets of the five boroughs. That means legislators who live hundreds of miles from the city, and may never go near the place by land, sea or automobile, have a say on these entirely local issues.

Naturally, they will look for guidance from Golden, one of two Republicans in the Senate from New York City.

But even more than Golden, the Republicans cater to the wants and whims of Simcha Felder, a nominally Democratic senator from Brooklyn. He keeps the Republicans in power. There are 63 senators. Of them, 32 were elected as Democrats, including Felder. But he votes with the Republicans.

Magic: 31 Republican senators, but 32 Republican votes. Majority rules.

At one point several years ago, Felder and Golden offered to swap support for the cameras in exchange for a bus program that would primarily benefit yeshivas, or Orthodox Jewish schools, many of them in areas represented by Felder.

In June, Felder offered his approval for the cameras in exchange for full-time armed guards — preferably police officers — at all schools. The mayor said that would cost more than $1.2 billion, The New York Post reported.

But Felder’s one-man veto power may be slipping away, at least on this issue. Sen. Elaine Phillips, a Republican whose district is on Long Island, announced on Tuesday she will support the cameras, as Rita Ciolli reported in Newsday. She joins another Republican senator, Patty Ritchie, from a district north of Syracuse, in their favor. All 31 Democrats, plus Phillips, Ritchie and Golden, would give the measure 34 votes.

Golden has been under siege in recent weeks from parents of children killed by drivers, transportation safety activists and others.

“Kudos to them for the 24-hour vigil, for the tweets, for standing on street corners — that’s the beauty of democracy,” Quaglione said. “We have upped the game, bringing it to the point, where any doubt that people might have that he is just being a lukewarm supporter, we are dispelling that.”

That is a highly optimistic view of the power of a news release from Golden.

“Whenever they want to pass it,” Cuomo said, “they get into their car and they go to Albany.”

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