Gov. Hochul delays congestion pricing in New York City indefinitely
Originally published in
Times Union
on
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Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday indefinitely delayed implementing a plan to charge motorists tolls to enter the core of Manhattan, just weeks before the nation’s first “congestion pricing” system was set to launch.
The move marks a stunning reversal for public transit advocates who had championed the tolls as a way of raising billions of dollars for New York’s beleaguered subway and commuter rail systems while reducing traffic in the city’s streets. But it drew praise from Hudson Valley officials on both sides of the aisle who have criticized the plan, saying it would place an undue cost burden on their constituents who commute to Manhattan.
Hochul said that while she remains committed to the program’s environmental goals, implementing it now as New York City is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic “risked too many unintended consequences for New Yorkers at this time.”
The tolling program had been scheduled to start June 30. New York would have become the first U.S. city to join a handful globally with similar congestion pricing schemes, including London, Stockholm, Milan and Singapore, which is credited with pioneering the first such program in 1975.
Most people driving passenger vehicles into Manhattan below 60th Street — roughly the area south of Central Park — would have to pay at least $15 under the system, with larger vehicles paying more. Those tolls would come on top of the already hefty tolls for using bridges and tunnels to enter Manhattan, like the $13.38 to $17.63 it costs to take a car through the Lincoln or Holland tunnels.
State Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat representing nearly all of Orange County in the Hudson Valley, released a statement Wednesday saying he strongly supported delaying the toll plan. He has loudly opposed congestion pricing, saying it was unfair to his constituents and others in communities west of the Hudson River who have few options for public travel into New York City. In February, Skoufis, his Republican Senate colleague, Rob Rolison, and at least four other Hudson Valley Assembly members joined a federal lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers seeking to block the congestion pricing plan.
“Congestion pricing is flat-out theft of my constituents’ hard-earned money, particularly those who have no viable public transit into the city,” Skoufis said in Wednesday’s statement.
