A Hudson Valley Democrat wants to push the late former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo off his bridge — or at least the Cuomo name.
“Everyone in the Hudson Valley still calls the bridge the Tappan Zee for a reason,” state Sen. James Skoufis (D-Woodbury) told The Post of the span completed in 2018. “It’s the rightful name.”
Skoufis is adding his political muscle to a three-year-old legislative push by becoming the main sponsor of a bill to rename the bridge connecting Rockland and Westchester counties after two years in which GOP-led efforts went nowhere in a state Legislat💦ure dominated by Democratic supermajorities.
The name change would take effect immediately upon the bill passing the state Senate and Assembly — which Skoufis hopes to accomplish before the regular legislative session ends this June — and getting signed ♏into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“Anytime by June 8 would be great,” Skoufis said of his timetable to move the bill through the legislative works.
That appears much more possible this year with a prominent state Senate Democrat getting behind the cause, according to freshman Assemblyman John McGowan (R-Pearl River), who is sponsoring the bill in his chamber — where some Democrats backed it last year
“The reality is being a Republican and trying to pass legislation is much more difficult than for my colleagues in the majority,” McGowan told The Post. “I’ll work with anybody, Republican or Democrat. Good ideas are good ideas.”
Skoufis, the first Democrat in the state Senate to support the bill, replaced former ಞstate Sen. Mike Martucci, a Republican, as the main bill sponsor in his chamber.
McGowan, the GOP Assemblyman, is taking up the mantle of his pre🎃decessor — now-US Rep. Michael Lawler — who introduced the bill in 2021.
Supporters say the proposal is als🏅o about much more than their preferreಌd name for a key transportation link.
Di🔯sgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as part of a late-night legislative backroom deal to approve a catch-all omnibus bill in 2017, 🦩as the finishing touches were being put on the nearly $4 billion structure.
In exchange for the tribute to Cuomo’s dad, Republicans got a hodgepodge of concessions — including greater retirement benefits for uniformed first responders injured on the job, a tax break for lower Manhattan real estate, a three-year extension of county sales taxes for both upstate and New York City, up to $50 million in flood assistance for Lake Ontario, and a loosening of land restrictions in part of Adirondack Park
Many New ไYorkers h🐽ave been resisting the name change ever since.
“The idea of renaming it in the name of a politician – I don’t think it’s something that people support and there was no input in this,” said McGowan, whose district includes the Rockland side of the bridge. “There was no public forum for people to have in order to share their thoughts before it was done – and it just kind of happened.”
History is also on their side, according to a explaining how the roots of the “Tappan Zee” phrase reach back even beyond colonial times.
“The Dutch settlers that came to the Hudson Valley in the 17th Century named this crossing ‘Tappan Zee,’ after a local Indian tribe and the Dutch word for sea,” the paper reads. “Changing the name to reflect our region’s rich history is the appropriate path forward and changing the name back to the Tappan Zee Bridge will do just that.”
But the bill still faces an uncertain future in the Assembly after Transportation Committee Chairman William Magnarelli (D-Syracuse) blocked the proposal from getting a floor vote last year.
Magnarelli did not provide immediate comment Monday about the reintrod🎃ucti𓂃on of the bill.
Whatever happens with the proposal in Albany, people connected to Rockland say “Mario M. Cuomo” has no chance of ever becoming the preferred name of the bridge connecting Nyack and Tarrytown.
“Call me an originalist — but to me, it’ll always be the Tappan Zee,” Rockland native Sarah Donnelly told The Post.
Despite the apparent slight to one of the Empire State’s most famous politicians, Skoufis stressed that removing “Mario M. Cuomo” from the bridge is not a personal attack on the late liberal lion of Albany.
“Former Governor Mario Cuomo should have a public work dedicated to his service,” he said, “but it should be a naming — not a renaming.”
