MTA planned to impose $15 fee starting this month
Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to “indefinitely pause” its plan to begin levying this month a $15 toll on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street.
Hochul announced her decision on Wednesday (June 5), as the MTA prepared to launch “congestion pricing,” a years-in-the-works plan that the agency expected to generate $1 billion in annual revenue for capital projects and reduce air pollution and gridlock in lower Manhattan.
“Let’s be real: A $15 charge may not mean a lot to someone who has the means, but it can break the budget of a working- or middle-class household,” said Hochul.
Under the first-in-the-nation plan approved by the MTA board in March, passenger and small commercial vehicles would pay $15 during the day and $3.75 at night. Trucks and some buses would pay higher tolls, $24 to $36 during the day depending on their size, and $6 to $9 at night.
The plan included various discounts and credits for low-income drivers and people who pay tunnel tolls and exemptions for government vehicles and people with disabilities. The MTA said the toll would raise $1 billion yearly for capital projects.
Officials from New Jersey and the Hudson Valley, residents of lower Manhattan and New York City teachers are among the groups who filed lawsuits over congestion pricing.
I’m deeply disappointed in Gov. Hochul and the Democratic and Republican representatives who are trying to stop congestion pricing. Do we have no one left in Albany willing to do politically difficult things in the name of progress?
When I got my driver’s license all those years ago, they drilled into us that driving is a privilege, not a right. In a city like New York, which has a robust infrastructure for mass transit, there is no reason anyone should feel the need to drive into those crowded streets. But if you choose to do it, pay for that privilege.
Meanwhile, the indefinite delay in congestion pricing slashed any hope of raising the billions of dollars that are needed to sustain, improve and grow the MTA — our only hope for a climate-forward, mass-transit-oriented future that serves anyone in the Hudson Valley who wants or needs to travel to New York City.