At yesterday’s Senate confirmation hearings, MTA Chief Joseph Lhota got most of the press, but Thomas Madison, the Thruway Authority’s newly-confirmed Executive Director, said something newsworthy as well.

“At this moment in time, we don’t have the legal statutory allowance in New York State to do public-private partnership as they are technically defined in transportation projects,” Madison said. “So right now, the plan is that the Tappan Zee Bridge will be a publicly financed project.”

This is the first time since Governor Cuomo’s October announcement of fast-tracked Tappan Zee plans that New York has said the bridge will be paid for with public dollars. In his State of the State speech, Governor Cuomo advocated for public-private partnerships to repair New York’s infrastructure, but Streetsblog reports that the legislature would have to sanction the novel financing mechanism if it were to be used in the Tappan Zee project.

TSTC opposed the removal of bus rapid transit from the bridge plans and is urging New York to replace it.