Slowly, the pieces are coming together for the stadium to be built without state funding, although no one is calling it a stadium.

Note the sentence at the end of the article "... He used that rationale to kill state funding for the Jets stadium...". The state funding has been killed, not the stadium.

No stopping No. 7?

Unlikely state can kill extension

By JOE MAHONEY
and PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

The city and MTA believe they can go forward with the extension of the No. 7 subway line - no matter what the Capital Program Review Board thinks.

The board may take action today on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's five-year capital plan.

Any of the board's four representatives could kill the plan, and one - Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan (D-Queens) - basically does the bidding of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan).

As a voting member of the Public Authorities Control Board, Silver torpedoed the West Side stadium.

The No. 7 project is in the MTA's capital plan, so some believe that if Silver killed the plan, the No. 7 extension to the far West Side would die with it.

But because the $2 billion project doesn't involve any state funding, MTA and city officials insist it can go forward without the state panel's approval.

"They don't have jurisdiction over it," MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said. "If the city provides us with the funds, we will build the No. 7 line extension."

Even Silver seemed to concede the point yesterday, telling the Daily News: "Some people think they have to send the 7 line to the capital review board regardless of the fact that the city will pay for it. I'm not one of them."

A Silver spokesman seemed to back-pedal later, contending that the extension's financing is not completely clear.

Silver's main concern is that development incentives in Bloomberg's plan for the West Side will hamper efforts to revitalize downtown and the Ground Zero area, which is in the speaker's district.

He used that rationale to kill state funding for the Jets stadium.

The mayor, governor, state Assembly and state Senate all have representatives on the review board.

The plan must be unanimously approved.