BY Adam Lisberg

DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

Mayor Bloomberg’s historic plan to charge drivers $8 to enter Manhattan below 60th St. won the endorsement of the City Council Monday night – putting Albany under the gun to make it law.

After hours of impassioned debate over whether the measure would ease traffic, help the environment, raise mass transit dollars or just penalize those who have no option but to drive to work, the City Council voted 30-20 in favor of the nation’s first congestion pricing plan.

Councilwoman Helen Foster (D-Bronx), a foe, was absent. It was one of the closest votes in recent memory for a council that usually passes measures by wide margins, but supporters hailed it as a sign of broad support.

“It is now completely clear that congestion pricing has the strong backing of the people of New York City,” Bloomberg said after the vote, saying the state Assembly and Senate should heed the message.

“I am increasingly confident that state leaders will do what’s right for our city,” Bloomberg said. “Everybody in the city believes today or will come to believe that this is the right thing for New York City.”

Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), who worked with Bloomberg to wrangle votes for the plan, said the vote showed broad support, with 20 of the 30 yes votes coming from council members who represent areas outside Manhattan.

“We are sick and tired of our streets being clogged with traffic,” Quinn said, holding the final measures signed by the mayor and stamped by the city clerk to be taken to Albany. “We are sick and tired of the children who live in our city literally having to fight to be able to breathe. We see congestion pricing as a solution to this problem.”

The plan’s fate in Albany is unknown. Gov. Paterson supports the plan, and Senate GOP Leader Joseph Bruno is believed to have the votes to pass it, but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been noncommittal.

If lawmakers there make any changes to the plan approved by the council, it may have to return to City Hall for another vote.

Opponents said the plan would hurt poor- and middle-income New Yorkers, and that they didn’t trust the MTA to spend the money from the plan properly.

“This is the greatest city in the world, and one of the greatest freedoms is the freedom to move about it freely,” said Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn), a leader of the opponents. “What’s next? We’re going to charge a user fee to go into Central Park because it’s crowded?”

The vote came after months of intense lobbying by Quinn and Bloomberg, who has wined and dined council members at Gracie Mansion. Critics say he has tried to win votes by dangling construction projects and endorsements in front of council members.

If the state Senate and Assembly pass the bill by April 7, the federal Department of Transportation will give New York $354 million for mass transit improvement. The system would start charging drivers by March 31, 2009, using a network of cameras and E-ZPass readers to monitor every vehicle entering the zone by bridge, tunnel or surface street.

Under the plan, cars would pay $8 and trucks would pay $21 to drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

That would raise an estimated $491 million a year, which would be used to pay for billions of dollars worth of new bus, subway and commuter train projects.

It would also cut traffic congestion on city streets, promote cleaner air, and help the vast majority of New Yorkers who don’t drive, says Bloomberg and a coalition of environmental, transportation and business groups who back the plan.

The first-in-the-nation proposal has sparked outrage among others, though, including influential City Council members who say it penalizes drivers from outer-borough neighborhoods with lousy mass transit options.

Opponents say the plan will hurt small businesses, but give a free pass to drivers who already pay tolls at the Port Authority and MTA bridges and tunnels – since those tolls would be credited against the $8 fee.

A revised version of the plan prepared over the weekend tried to address some of those concerns by rebating the $8 fee for drivers who are poor enough to qualify for the earned-income tax credit, and by pressuring the Port Authority to fork over $1 billion for mass transit projects in the city.

In a morning appearance with labor leaders who support the plan, Bloomberg seemed to question whether the Port Authority provision would survive a legal challenge – but said that shouldn’t bar congestion pricing from taking effect.