Mario Cuomo Bridge or Tappan Zee? New push on to bring back old bridge's name

It stumbled into law in messy Albany style almost six years ago: a new bridge name that honored the governor's father and has never quite stuck with the Hudson Valley drivers who cross it.

Thrown into a hodgepodge of leftovers after the 2017 legislative session was the rechristening of the Tappan Zee Bridge, which was then being rebuilt. The $4 billion double span that partially opened a month later would be known as the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, after the late, three-term governor whose son signed the proposal into law.

A bill to restore the original name — supported by a petition with more than 260,000 signatures — has sat for two years. But it was recently revived and stands a better shot this session, with a Democratic senator taking up the cause in the Democratic-majority Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul wielding the pen to sign or veto it instead of her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.

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Sen. James Skoufis, a Cornwall Democrat who represents most of Orange County, said Monday that he decided to sponsor the proposal after reviewing that and other lingering bills left by former Sen. Mike Martucci, an Orange County Republican who left office in December.

Skoufis said strong feelings persist among constituents about the "unseemly process" by which lawmakers and Cuomo renamed the crossing, with no public input. The three-mile Hudson River crossing had been the Tappan Zee Bridge — a name that echoed the region's Native American and Dutch heritage — since it opened in 1955, connecting Rockland and Westchester counties.

"This is nothing against the Cuomos," Skoufis said, adding that he would support dedicating another bridge, tunnel or roadway to the liberal icon who led New York from 1983 to 1994.

Republicans lead crusade but have no clout

The bridge's renaming was a bipartisan irritant for some Hudson Valley users but particularly inflamed Cuomo-averse Republicans, even those in distant places. Of the eight Republican senators co-sponsoring the bill with Skoufis, only freshman Sen. Bill Weber of Rockland County is from the area. One GOP sponsor lives more than six hours from the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

The Assembly sponsor is John McGowan, a Rockland freshman who inherited the bill from his predecessor, Mike Lawler, a fellow Republican now serving in Congress. No Assembly Democrats have joined him as co-sponsors, although two did last year and four Democrats voted in vain with Republicans to advance the bill in committee last April, the New York Post reported.

Two Assembly Democrats from the Hudson Valley took different stances on Monday. Ken Zebrowski of Rockland told the Journal News he supported the bill, while MaryJane Shimsky of Westchester questioned its importance and said she preferred merging the two bridge names.

"Instead of prioritizing an issue of questionable benefit to the taxpayers, let's devote our time and energy to fixing more of our crumbling roads and bridges,” Shimsky said.

Democrats hold roughly two thirds of all seats in both chambers and control the flow of legislation. Without a Democratic Assembly sponsor, Skoufis said, the Tappan Zee bill is less likely to pass by itself than as an addition to the budget or another omnibus whopper. The budget is due by April 1 and the session is set to end June 8.

How much it would cost to replace bridge signs if the legislation passes is unknown. The state Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority used patches and overlays to update many signs when the elder Cuomo's name was affixed to them in 2018 — and then modified again after his middle initial was omitted.

How did Cuomo get his dad's name on the new bridge?

Cuomo wrangled the bridge renaming with classic Albany horse-trading — and Republican support. In return, Republicans who then controlled the Senate got a stretch of Orange County road named for then-Sen. Bill Larkin and a promise of $10 million to expand the Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New Windsor, a prized site for Larkin. Assembly Democrats got a Manhattan park named for Denny Farrell, a 42-year stalwart in their conference.

Those pieces were mashed into a legislative package that extended mayoral control of New York City schools and granted crucial extensions of local sales- and hotel-tax rates around the state, among other unrelated items.

A conservative group launched an immediate petition drive to restore the Tappan Zee Bridge name, a campaign the Democratic governor declared personally "hurtful." Critics would get fresh ammunition four years later when Cuomo resigned, felled by scandals that included accusations of sexual harasssment.

Bringing back the original bridge name sounded fitting to William Belhumeur, a Nyack resident interviewed last week beside the Hudson in the village's Memorial Park.

“I’m a recent transplant, but I think everybody’s known it as the Tappan Zee, I’ve known it as the Tappan Zee,” Belhumeur said. “I think it’s a little bit of hubris. I think his dad is worthy of remembrance, but I think in context maybe it’s a little much.”

Photographer Tania Savayan contributed to this report.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for the Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on New York State Team: Mario Cuomo Bridge would go back to Tappan Zee under revived bill