Congestion Pricing Has Been Resurrected
Plus, I'll be moderating a panel on Friday about the election. Stop by!
Congestion pricing is back from the dead.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday said she would resurrect a toll on people driving into the busiest parts of Manhattan but at a lower cost, a move her allies hope will allow the nation’s first system of congestion pricing to begin operating before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.
As I wrote in The Wall Street Journal, the Democratic governor said officials would impose a $9 toll on most vehicle trips into the area south of Central Park starting in early January. That is less than the $15 that was adopted this spring by the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority—which Hochul had scrapped. It was projected to reduce traffic while raising roughly $900 million a year to support upgrades to the city’s subways, buses and commuter railroads.
“I believe that no New Yorker should have to pay a penny more than absolutely necessary to achieve these goals, and $15 is too much,” Hochul said Thursday.
But even with a lower toll, congestion pricing still faces legal and political risks before its planned start.
Officials representing commuters—including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and the head of the city’s teachers union—have sued to block the program, saying it wasn’t adequately studied. The MTA led a monthslong environmental assessment that included several public hearings.
Critics argue that congestion pricing is a burdensome tax on people who are forced to drive to work in Manhattan and don’t have mass-transit options available. It simply pushes traffic to other areas, as demonstrated by the MTA’s own assessment, they said.
“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,” Murphy, a Democrat, said in a statement. The Garden State’s lawsuit is pending.
And there’s Trump, who lived most of his life in New York. He said in a May social-media post that he would stop congestion pricing, calling it a “disaster.” Several Republicans in New York’s House delegation wrote to the president-elect last week, asking him to block the program.
“It will be virtually impossible for New York City to come back as long as the congestion tax is in effect,” Trump said in a statement.
MTA CEO Janno Lieber shot back that 90% of the tenants in Trump’s buildings get there … by taking mass transit.
FRIDAY NIGHT IN ALBANY: I’ll be moderating one of the two panels at the New York State Writers Institute’s post-election event: Telling the Truth in a Post-Truth World.
NYSWI’s Paul Grondahl will guide a discussion with Chuck Todd, Charlotte Alter and Rep. Paul Tonko about the future of the Democratic Party. I’ll lead a mirror discussion about what’s next for the GOP with John Faso, Trump biographer Timothy L. O’Brien and Marsha E. Barrett, author of “Nelson Rockefeller’s Dilemma: The Fight to Save Moderate Republicanism.”
The event is free and starts at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, 11/22. It will be in Page Hall on the SUNY Albany downtown campus, 135 Western Avenue. Come check it out!
THE QUESTION: Which other person was elected to two non-consecutive terms as U.S. president?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: Thanks to everyone who wrote with election reactions.