New York state leaders signaled they’re ready to revisit a costly “congestion pricing” program for Midtown and Lower Manhattan that originally would have charged drivers $15 per entry-day, reportedly in order to implement it before President-elect Trump takes office.
Gov. Kathy Hochul halted her long-held plan after initial backlash against state Democrats — but now some in the Empire State are warning Trump may quickly kill their revenue stream dream.
A group of New York Republicans wrote a letter to Trump asking him to use the power of the federal government to reverse what they called a wrongly-accelerated process by the Biden administration.
“Congestion pricing has only moved forward due to the MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] and Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) manipulation of the FHWA’s Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP), a pilot program initially authorized by Congress over three decades ago in 1991,” the letter read.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and President-elect Trump. (Getty Images)
“The Biden Administration even conspired to allow an abbreviated environmental review in order for the program to skip the normal process.”
Rep. Sam Graves, R–Mo., chair of the House Transportation Committee, said Trump has made his opposition clear and that the “rush to institute it before he can take office is a blatantly political move.”
“Just before it was scheduled to begin this summer, and prior to the election, the governor acted unilaterally to ‘indefinitely pause’ the congestion pricing proposal because of its unpopularity. Now it’s conveniently being resurrected barely a week after the polls closed,” he said.
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, D-Bay Ridge, conversely told the Albany Times-Union a congestion pricing plan must be started “immediately — before Trump can block it,” as the Republicans asked.
Congestion pricing would institute a video-enforced toll at newly-built gantries surrounding the city’s core. Traffic moving below 60th Street and Central Park, and entering from New Jersey, Brooklyn or Queens — except for via the RFK Triboro Bridge and George Washington Bridge — would be subject to the toll.
The lawmakers, including Rep. Michael Lawler of Rockland County, Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island, and Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota and Anthony D’Esposito of Long Island, called on Trump to respond.
“Congestion pricing, the latest in a long string of tyrannical taxes, has been pressed forward through consistent opposition about the burden on New York families and workers, the timing of the effort, areas lacking adequate transit, the fiscal responsibility of the move, the negative impact that congestion pricing will have on residents of some of the lowest-income neighborhoods in New York City and more,” they wrote.
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“Governor Hochul recently announced that she would pursue an almost immediate implementation of the congestion pricing cash grab, despite cynically ‘pausing’ it earlier this year in an effort to win back the House.”
The lawmakers claimed Hochul is acting now because the move failed to engender goodwill to elected Democrats this past election, adding that the MTA — which falls under state auspices — is running a massive deficit in part due to fare evasion and internal waste and fraud.
Democratic-majority New Jersey joined with Republican-majority Long Island lawmakers in bipartisan opposition to the plan, with the Garden State at one point pursuing legal action.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday he remains “firmly opposed to any attempt to force through a congestion pricing proposal in the final months of the Biden Administration.”
“All of us need to listen to the message that voters across America sent last Tuesday, which is that the vast majority of Americans are experiencing severe economic strains and still feeling the effects of inflation. There could not be a worse time to impose a new $9 toll on individuals who are traveling into downtown Manhattan for work, school, or leisure,” he said.
Murphy said New York never meaningfully consulted New Jersey in crafting a plan that would have great repercussions on their neighbor.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., agreed with Murphy, calling the program a commuter “cash grab.”
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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority falls under state auspices. (Getty Images)
“[T] this effort has always simply been a way to take money from the pockets of New Jersey residents to bail out the MTA from a mountain of debt,” he said.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber on Thursday said a problematic transit system that includes “buses that are slower than walking” and increased car accidents is “not the New York that we all want to live in.”
As for critics of congestion pricing, Lieber suggested that if first responders were stuck in Manhattanesque gridlock in any given town, their residents and local officials would clamor for a fix.
Hochul previously said she would like to see a slightly lower price point than the original $15, instead around $9, citing inflation, and Lieber suggested on Thursday he was open to seeing whether a lower toll could achieve the same revenue goals.
The news arrives as Democratic New York City Comptroller Bradford Lander announced that Trump’s presidency comes with “grave risks for New York City [including in] education, housing, health care and transit… to the mass deportation of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Team Trump for its response and to Hochul for additional comment.