Assemblyman Adam Bradley is hopeful the governor will sign his bill outlawing the practice of zone pricing by gasoline companies.
But he isn”™t holding his breath.
In July and the beginning of September, Gov. David Paterson vetoed what Bradley viewed as two worthwhile bills: the creation of a senior learning community at SUNY Purchase and establishing countywide standards in the licensing of electrical inspectors in Westchester.
Bradley said last week that the bill not only addresses the zone pricing that occurs in Westchester, but in pockets throughout the state. He said the pricing appears to be based on cost of living of the population of a specific area. The cost of gas in Bedford, for example, can be 20 to 30 cents higher than in Yonkers.
“Gas prices are high enough. There”™s no need to gouge the consumers,” the White Plains Democrat said.
He said the aim of his bill is to protect consumers, as well as the service station owners who are put in the position of having to pass along the higher costs via increased prices at the gas pumps.
Bradley”™s bill, which has a companion bill in the Senate, prohibits the practice of zone pricing for motor fuel by wholesalers and allows the state attorney general to prosecute the violation. A civil penalty of not more than $10,000 can be imposed.
Zone pricing, Bradley said, is a marketing technique used by petroleum companies to increase profits. According to his bill, “if one area typically is more affluent than another, the tank wagon price, in other words, the price per gallon determined by the wholesaler, at which gasoline is offered for sale to the retailers may be slightly higher in that area, than an area where the clientele is primarily a working class neighborhood.”
But Bradley says this is discriminatory and should be outlawed.
While Bradley says he is “not in the business of predicting,” he remains confident the governor”™s office, which received the bill Sept. 15, will do something. If it does get vetoed he said he will see what the governor”™s concerns are and try to work a compromise.
The senior learning communities bill that was passed unanimously by the Assembly and vetoed by the governor on July 21, would have set aside some 40 acres on the Purchase college property for housing.
College President Thomas Schwarz has been advocating for the senior learning community for several years. Schwarz, with the support of the SUNY board of trustees, proposed building a 385-unit retirement community on about 40 acres that was the site of an ill-fated project from several years back to create a summer home for the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
The bill to create a board of examiners for electrical inspectors was vetoed Sept. 4.
The bill would have consolidated through the creation of the board the licensing currently being done by municipalities.
