The New York City Council wants to make sure New Yorkers know exactly how much they’re paying at the pump. Lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday that would require gas stations to advertise their cheaper rates for customers paying with cash.

The City Council got its newest member to the Democratic majority today, as now-former Republican Peter Koo made the change official. But, as the full statement below shows, Koo didn't mention the word "Republican" once in his comments today:

The New York Times first reported earlier that Republican City Councilman Peter Koo of Flushing is planning on switching party registration. A source confirmed the story. Koo is scheduled to announce the switch on Monday, according to the Times story.

The source, who is close to Flushing politics, pointed out that there were reports Koo was dissatisfied with the Queens Republican Party. This dissatisfaction played in the Councilman's decision the source said, who went on to say Koo was feeling "under appreciated."

But Koo has also apparently found being a Republican in New York City too isolated.

"He probably wants to be united with people," the individual said. "It's probably hard to do, being a Republican [in New York City]."

Koo has apparently also mentioned in the past wanting the chance to introduce legislation and to have the chance to chair a committee--things that will be next-to-impossible in the council's tiny minority.

The Observer's Colin Campbell spoke with Eric Ulrich--who has himself felt the effects of his county party's divisiveness--who said he "can't blame" Koo for making the switch.

Peter is a rock star and a superstar in his community. He represented the future of this party and I tried to do everything I could to help him stay in the Republican Party. But I don’t think people at county level or the local level were particularly helpful in respect to that.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn became the first presumptive mayoral candidate to raise the maximum amount of money that can be spent in the primaries.

On more quick Quinnipiac poll finding.

By a ratio of nearly 3-to-1, voters across all political affiliations support the passage of the living wage bill that's been proposed in the City Council.

"True to its image as a liberal town, New York gives big support to the City Council plan to require a 'Living Wage' by companies that do business with the city. Does the government have an obligation to mandate a living wage?  Overwhelmingly, voters say yes,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in the release about the poll.

(Courtsey of the borough president's Flickr account.)

Citing a $1.3 million discrepancy between the most and least funded council districts through a process described as murky and subjecting, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer released a report calling for a complete overhaul of how New York City Council members receive discretionary funding for their districts.

"I know people are going to be upset with this proposal but we can't keep putting our head in the sand," Stringer said on a conference call with reporters. The Manhattan borough president is seen as a likely candidate for mayor in 2013, as is City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

City councilmembers and the borough presidents are given these discretionary funds each year during the budget process. These funds are primarily spent on constituent services through non-profits and other groups. While the distribution of the funds by individual councilmembers has at times been the subject of controversy, the borough president’s report focused on which members were getting what, pointing to what the report described as “too often based on a member’s political standing within the Council.”

"The member items are used by the speaker as an instrument of power," explained Doug Muzzio, political science professor at Baruch College and an expert on city government. "You reward your friends and you screw your enemies." Reforming member items as Stringer is suggesting would be, in essence, curtailing the power of the speaker of the city council—currently Christine Quinn.

Specifically, the report called for replacing the current, speaker-based system with one that would have the mayor’s office allotting the money evenly, or on a more transparent process that took the needs of the districts’ constituents into account. Currently, $49.6 million in funding is divided among the council’s 51 members. If the report’s recommendation were implemented, it would likely mean even more power in the hands of the mayor, at the expense of the council’s speaker, and potentially the council itself.

Quinn’s office released a statement through Maria Alvarado, the council’s press secretary, saying they were reviewing the report and were “proud of the budget reforms the Council has already implemented that increase transparency and accountability—including an online database that the Borough President has embraced today.”

The borough president’s report highlighted the significant difference between the council members. For example, Brooklyn Councilmember Domenic Recchia received the most funding during the budget process--$1,630,064 to be exact. This is more than four times as much as either Bronx councilmembers Larry Seabrook or Helen Foster received. Their districts are some of the poorest in the city. The report’s figures are based on reviewing the past four years of available data.

"I agree with Borough President Scott Stringer that District budget allocations should be based on the needs of each district," Seabrook said in a statement. "City Council Speaker Christine Quinn decides on the budget allocations for each district and I certainly hope that next year’s decision for my district is a more favorable one."

“The players at the table get more,” Foster said about the current system. “It’s not based on fairness at all. I don't know that there is any system in politics that is based on need." While she made it clear she was not in favor of any reform that took power away from the council in favor of the mayor, Foster agreed with Seabrook, that the system should be taking some level of need into account.

"The disparities should not be so great," she said.

The map below illustrates just how removed from a standardized system the process is. When the districts for the five lowest and highest receivers of total funds are put on a map, it turns out that three of the highest receivers are directly next to or one district away from all but one of the least funded districts.

NYC City Council "Member Item" distribution for fiscal year 2012.
Top five district allocations are in green, bottom five are in red.
Source: Office of Mannhattan Borough President Scott Stringer

The Bloomberg Administration on Wednesday released the names of 20 fire companies the mayor is considering closing to help close the city's budget gap. The document given to the City Council lists eight closings in Brooklyn, four in Queens, three each in the Bronx and Manhattan and two in Staten Island.

The City Council has introduced a package of 17 bills in the wake of the city's botched response to last December's blizzard. But at a Council hearing Wednesday, Bloomberg administration officials rejected the bills, saying they would hamstring the city's flexibility in emergency response, or duplicate efforts already in place at various agencies.

Wal-Mart workers, former and current, will testify Thursday at the City Council's second and final hearing into the labor practices of of the retail giant, which is expected to get blasted by the employees following a fiery council meeting that drew protesters two weeks ago.

The midterm elections are over and the 2012 campaign for President has not officially started, but in New York City, a campaign of a different sort is already underway.

The back-and-forth between Wal-Mart and its opponents heated up in the days before a city council hearing to examine the retailer. But due to the pending snowstorm expected to blanket the city on Wednesday, the council postponed the hearing until Feb. 3.