NEW YORK The plan to charge a toll for most vehicles that drive in the most-congestion section of New York City lower Manhattan -- was shot down last month by the New York General Assembly in a fusillade of political vitriol.

The controversial plan called for levying a daily "congestion tax" on most vehicles entering the city on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Cars would be charged $8 and trucks $21. There was an effort, lead by the Bus Association of New York, to exclude motorcoaches from the fee. Now the issue is mute at least for the time being.

The congestion plan was developed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg but it was the New York legislature that sent it to the scrap heap. The dumping, however, occurred out of public view. It fizzled in a back room filled with Democratic legislators.

The cause of death is being blamed on a variety of factors but basically it is seen as having failed because there are more people wanting to drive into Manhattan than there are residents wanting to keep drivers out.

Other factors include:

Mistrust of the government, including broken promises by the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority

Political log-rolling in the city council

Bloombergs take-no-prisoners political style

In the state assembly, the concept of congestion pricing faced major opposition from legislators from New Yorks outer boroughs and city suburbs who said it would unfairly target commuters and their constituents.

New York Speaker of the House Sheldon Silver never let the issue come to a vote on the floor of the state house, saying there were not a enough votes for passage. Silver was blasted by Bloomberg, The New York Times and other plan supporters for keeping the legislation bottled up and blocking a public vote.

Bloomberg called it a "special kind of cowardice."

As a result of the assemblys decision, New York missed out on $354 million in federal funding for mass transit improvements through the United States Department of Transportation.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters, a proponent of congestion pricing, said New Yorks "mounting traffic and environmental woes point to congestion pricing as an inevitable solution, even if not in the next few months or with the assistance of federal urban partnership dollars."

The Bloomberg administration put a prodigious amount of resources and man-hours into developing the congestion pricing plan and lobbying on its behalf. They scored an initial victory when the New York City Council endorsed the proposal and kicked it to Albany for debate. Governor Paterson also endorsed the idea.

But Bloomberg has less influence over House Speaker Silver, who three years ago squashed Bloombergs plans for a West Side stadium, than he does over city council members.