SAN JUAN — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has taken a step to revive congestion pricing before President-elect Donald Trump, who opposes the extra toll, takes office.
In recent days, the governor’s office asked the U.S. Department of Transportation whether implementing congestion pricing with lower tolls than the planned $15 for drivers entering parts of Manhattan would require another lengthy environmental review, two people with knowledge of the conversations told POLITICO. They were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
“She’s asking for it to go from $15 to $9,” said one of the people, an MTA board member.
Hochul halted congestion pricing just before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was to begin tolling drivers entering Manhattan’s central business district this summer, revenue the transit agency slotted for repairs and upgrades to its aging system. Congestion pricing was expected to help raise $15 billion.
Hochul had said she was concerned the tolling plan, which is widely unpopular in the suburbs, would hurt Democrats this fall. The party ended up flipping three New York congressional seats and keeping every other — a victory amid a national trouncing by the GOP.
Reducing the toll to $9 is significant because the MTA received approval for congestion pricing from the Biden administration after officials spent years studying a range of $9 to $23 tolls for passenger vehicles.
By keeping the toll within the range that’s already been analyzed, Hochul appears to be hoping for a quick greenlight while Biden remains president.
A federal DOT official said they had not yet received a formal request from New York.
A spokesperson for Hochul declined to comment on recent communication with the DOT, and referred POLITICO to the governor’s comments at a press conference this week, when she said she had spoken with the Biden administration in advance of the election to prepare for a potential Trump victory.
“I spoke to the White House about this three days ago,” Hochul said Wednesday. “They understand our need to take affirmative steps to ensure that nothing compromises the MTA.”
Unless the plan is secured before Trump is in the White House, congestion pricing is all but dead. The tolls are especially unpopular with Republicans, and Trump pledged in May to “TERMINATE Congestion Pricing in my FIRST WEEK back in Office!!”
Since Trump’s win this week, congestion pricing advocates have pushed Hochul to act immediately, and accused her of lacking urgency.
"Sharks are circling New York's public transit network and proposing absurd schemes destined to fail,” Danny Pearlstein, spokesperson for Riders Alliance, which supports congestion pricing, said in a statement. “Gov. Kathy Hochul must prove she can resist the insanity and take care of the basic infrastructure millions of New Yorkers depend on each day."
He specifically cited comments this week from Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island, who suggested having Trump in office would end the immigration crisis and free up money in New York for transit that is being used to help migrants.
Malliotakis in an interview with POLITICO this week said she believes Trump could reverse administrative actions taken to further congestion pricing by the outgoing Biden officials.
“We will have the ability to stop this thing,” she said.
Lowering tolls too much could also cause legal problems for Hochul, since New York law requires the tolls to raise a certain amount of money.
Congestion pricing, which former Mayor Mike Bloomberg proposed for Manhattan in 2007, is meant to reduce traffic and improve air quality. But certain areas of the region stand to see higher short-term pollution as trucks reroute to avoid tolls. Tolling foes, including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and the New York City teachers union, have seized on that threat in lawsuits aiming to block the policy.
A federal judge in New York rejected their arguments, while a case is pending in New Jersey federal court that could still delay congestion pricing even if Hochul restarts it.
MTA CEO Janno Lieber recently said his agency is ready to quickly start tolling drivers, if the approvals are in place.
Nick Reisman and Jason Beeferman contributed to this report.
Comments
Post a Comment