Assembly Democrats have temporarily blocked Republican-sponsored legislation that sought to rename the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge as the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Assemblyman Michael Lawler (R-Rockland) suspects his party affiliation led Transportation Committee Chair Bill Magnarelli (D-Syracuse) to block the bill from moving out of the committee Monday despite bipartisan support for the bill.
“The former governor disgraced his family name,” Lawler told The Post of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who controversially named the bridge in honor of his late father, a three-term governor.
“The process by which they named this bridge in the first place was done without local input and was done in a secretive manner. It was wrong then and it’s wrong now. The [state Department of Transportation] has the signs they could easily put them back up.”
Left-leaning Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas (D-Queens) and socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill along with a litany of conservative Republicans.
Assembly members Emily Gallagher (D-Brooklyn), Kenny Burgos (D-Bronx), Marcela Mityanas (D-Brooklyn) and Taylor Darling (D-Nassau) voted with GOP colleagues Monday against a successful motion by the Democratic chair to block the bill.
Magnarelli declined to comment Monday about his reasoning for holding up the bill, which he promised will come up for a vote in his committee before the scheduled end of the 2022 legislative session on June 2.
The legislation directs the state Department of Transportation to oversee the installation and maintenance of new signs, according to the legislative language.
Public opinion surveys have suggested widespread public support for the idea, which more than a quarter-million people backed in a petition. Democratic and Republican members of the Assembly have also signed on as co-sponsors to the bill introduced by Lawler, whose district includes the western side of the bridge.
Magnarelli said at the meeting that the potential costs and time involved in renaming the bridge mean the time is not right to move the bill forward. He questioned whether the bill was correct in tasking the state Department of Transportation, rather than the Thruway Authority, with remaking signage if the bill ever becomes law.
Though Magnarelli was able to thwart efforts to move the bill forward Monday, a parliamentary maneuver used by Lawler Monday will require the committee to hold at least one vote on advancing the bill.
“It lives to fight another day so I’m going to keep working on it until I get enough votes to move it out of committee,” Lawler told the Post. “No matter where I go, I get asked about how they want the Cuomo name off the bridge.”
The bill will have to be resubmitted to the Legislature if it does not pass by the end of the year.
Some committee members noted at the meeting that the committee has moved forward with similar renaming bills in the past. Some supporters note that the name of Tappan Zee would not only make the current structure in line with the historical name of the bridge spanning the eponymous three-mile-wide section of the Hudson.
“This is wildly popular,” Republican Assemblyman Kevin Byrnes (R-Brewster) said at the meeting, according to a recording. “If the Legislature wants to honor Mario Cuomo, I think there are more appropriate ways for us to do so … but at a minimum I think we should be adding Tappan Zee back.”
