With hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid on the line, Mayor Bloomberg must convince lawmakers to support his congestion-pricing proposal at a hearing tomorrow in Midtown. The plan, which is now part of a draft bill circulating around Albany, faces stiff opposition from some legislators who are balking at the prospect of charging drivers $8 to use the city’s most crowded streets during peak hours.

“The purpose of the hearing is not to talk about the problem or the concepts,” an assemblyman of Westchester, Richard Brodsky, said in an interview. “It’s to talk about the specifics of the proposed remedy.”

Mr. Brodsky said the hearing would consider whether it is fair to charge wealthy and middle-class motorists the same amount to use the city’s streets. He also said that putting a thousand more cameras around Manhattan raises serious concerns about privacy.

Governor Spitzer, who has said he is interested in the concept but has not committed his support to the city’s proposed road tax, today is meeting with Mayor Bloomberg and the U.S. secretary of transportation, Mary Peters, to discuss congestion pricing and the city’s application for federal funds. He is scheduled to appear shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Bloomberg after the closed-door meeting, a move that is likely to be seen as his most noteworthy support of the plan to date.

Mr. Bloomberg told reporters yesterday that his testimony in front of about 40 state assemblymen would focus on three core issues: New York City’s bad air quality, which drives asthma rates in certain neighborhoods to four times the national average; the negative economic impact that traffic has on the region’s economy, and the $500 million of federal funds for congestion pricing that the city could lose if the bill stalls in Albany.

Even lawmakers who support the city’s green plan are expressing skepticism that the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, would put the bill on the floor in the next two weeks, before the session ends.

The most recent draft of the sustainability bill circulating among lawmakers states that the $8 fee motorists would pay to enter Manhattan south of 86th Street could be raised in order to cover the costs of the pricing program, or to further reduce traffic after the first three years of the pilot program.

The bill does not list the transportation projects that would be funded through congestion pricing dollars that were listed in Mr. Bloomberg’s original 2030 plan. The lack of specifics has prompted critics of the plan to question how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could be trusted to use the money to expand service. The bill also does not specify which neighborhoods surrounding the toll areas of Manhattan would qualify for residential parking permits, but states that 20% of parking spots in those neighborhoods would be reserved for non-residents.

The draft bill exempts taxis and livery, emergency vehicles, sanitation and school vehicles, as well as certain special license plates from paying the fee. The bill does not, as is the case in London, make exceptions for cars with handicapped license plates or for hybrid vehicles. Supporters say the bill’s current language is just a starting point for negotiations.