Politics on the Hudson

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had opposed the initial legislation to reform the state’s scandal-scarred public authorities, said this afternoon that he supports the modified bill.

He said the bill removes some of his initial concerns, such as requiring authorities to sell land at fair market value no matter the use and not giving authority board members autonomy on local issues.

“Our state representatives in Albany deserve a lot of credit for dramatically improving a public authorities reform bill that, as initially drafted, would have done more harm than good,” Bloomberg said in a statement.

“We have always supported reform of the public authorities, but we had major concerns about the consequences the original bill would have produced.”