Daily News from New York, New York • 1059

Thursday, April 1. 1993 DAILY NEWS GOOM to SSL'3 tll2 $1 J5 fare By JOEL BENENSON Daily News Albany Bureau Cnief II lip I jM wt It 'r i -if I i I M9Sm: yms.t tji 1 rfr; i i 1 t. ALBANY Even as they missed the legal budget deadline again, Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders struck a deal yesterday to save the $1.25 transit fare for two years and spend $9.6 billion to rebuild the city's subway and bus system. Negotiators were still working on some details of the complex transportation package, which would also pump $9.7 billion into fixing crumbling roads and bridges over four years.

But legislative sources said the plan was essentially complete. "All of the operating holes have been filled so there will be no fare increase for the next two years," said Assemblyman Michael Bragman CD-Syracuse), Transportation Committee chairman. "It looks pretty good," said a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Ralph Marino (R-Nassau). The $9.6 billion rebuilding program gives the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $1 billion more than Cuomo proposed in his budget. Major projects The program includes several major projects to improve the city's mass transit system, including: Completing the automated fare system by 1997 so straphangers will be able to buy multi-ride cards instead of tokens.

Major renovations at 91 subway stations including Main St, Flushing, and Atlantic Brooklyn. Upgrading the antiquated communications system used by transit cops. Purchasing 1,500 new buses. The program will be funded by a combination of federal funds. Municipal Assistance Corp.

money and Westway trade-in money. The balance will come from borrowing backed by revenue from a petroleum tax earmarked for transportation. A fare increase will be averted by making cuts in the MTA's budget, increasing the city's contribution to the subway system and using some of the transportation funds. Some sticking points were the Senate's resistance to a provision that would require transit and highway contractors to have minority-worker training programs. Negotiators for Cuomo and legislative leaders tried yesterday to reach a final accord on a $60 billion budget.

It was the ninth straight year they had failed to enact a budget by the April 1 deadline. The leaders were haggling over how to spend $810 million in revenues found since Cuomo proposed Jhis BRUCE LEE Accident on movie set kills Bruce Lee's son By JAY MAEDER Daily News Staff Writer A gun accident on a jinxed movie set yesterday killed actor Brandon Lee, son of the late martial-arts film idol Bruce Lee. Lee, shot in the stomach by a gun supposedly rigged to fire blanks, died after surgery in a hospital in Wilmington, N.C., where he was filming CarolCo's ghost thriller, "The Crow." At 27 and an up-and-comer, Lee trained as a child to fight by his famous father had appeared in the chop-socky epics "Kung Fu: The Movie," "Showdown in Little Tokyo" and "Rapid Fire." Police have classified the shooting as accidental, though the investigation is continuing. Producer Bob Rosen said he could not explain why the blank prop pistol ostensibly containing only a piece of soft wadding had a projectile instead. "I don't know how it got in there," Rosen said.

"I've never heard of anything like this before." The accident happened during the filming of a flashback scene, Rosen said. "After doing incredibly difficult stunts on this movie, we were doing something incredibly simple. It was not really in any way what one would think of as a dangerous scene." Lee was standing about 20 feet from the gun when it was fired. Rushed to surgery, he died several hours later. "The Crow," based upon a recent supernatural comic book series, had been shooting in Wilmington for eight weeks.

Lee had the title role, that of a murdered rock star who returns from the dead to wreak vengeance upon his killers. It was not immediately clear what impact Lee's death would have on the production. BRANDON LEE was not whst one would think of as a dsngerous Producer Bob Rosea Si' rumors of misadven-ture have circulated for two decades. The elder Lee had been legendary for his martial-arts prowess displayed in numerous made-in-Hong-Kong action pictures. He also had appeared in the American TV shows "Batman" and "Green Hornet" Brandon Lee is believed to be the first actor killed by a blank pistol since TV series actor Jon-Erik Hexum accidentally shot himself in the head in 1984.

Another week of filming had been scheduled. The eerie movie has been hexed from the first day by a series of mishaps. One worker was nearly electrocuted by a high-voltage wire. A construction worker accidentally drove a screwdriver through his hand. A car accident injured a publicist A disgruntled employe angrily drove his car through one of the studio's shops.

Cult favorite Bruce Lee was 32 when he died mysteriously in 1973. Death was- formally attributed to brain-edema, but st.