Gentile, Gounardes: "What About Brooklyn?"

Responding to Governor Andrew Cuomo's Port Authority deal this week giving Staten Island E-ZPass holders a 60% discount on the Goethels/Bayonne/Outerbridge Crossings, local City Council Member Vincent Gentile asked the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority "What about Brooklyn?"

In a letter to the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Gentile called the Staten Island deal "one sided", slamming the MTA for ignoring Brooklynites who regularly cross the Verrazano for work, school, shopping or family visits.

People in his district, Gentile said, pay $3.84 to $5.28 more per crossing than Staten Islanders do.  The $13 toll is an unjustifiable burden, he said.

People on both ends of the span who regularly drive across should get the same discount, Gentile said.  If the Port Authority can work it out, the MTA should be able to as well, he said, offering to convene a meeting of State legislators and MTA officials to work out a discount plan for people on the Brooklyn side.

Democratic State Senate candidate Andrew Gounardes called out his Conservative Republican opponent Martin Golden for being MIA on the issue. Half-price trips to Jersey and savings of up to $1,200 a year on E-Z Pass rush-hour tolls happened, he said, because Staten Island legislators worked with Governor Cuomo and the Port Authority to make it happen.

Bay Ridge residents didn't get the chance at a similar deal because Senator Golden is asleep at the wheel, Gounardes said. Golden's affability masks absenteeism, lack of effort, and a failure to identify with his constituents -- maybe because the taxpayers pick up Golden's gas and tolls between Bay Ridge and Albany, he quipped.