President Donald Trump has maintained his opposition to congestion pricing in New York and has spoken to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) twice in the past week about it.
Hochul wants to keep the program, which has resulted in 1 million fewer vehicles entering the congested spots in Manhattan since its start on Jan. 5, and she is trying to convince Trump to keep it.
The toll helps fund the Metropolitan Transit Authority, an agency that has numerous plans to use the money from congestion pricing to improve the city’s public transportation system. The MTA believes the program has produced “undeniably positive results.” Hochul wants to keep that going.
“America’s economy relies on New York City, and New York City relies on public transit — that’s why Gov. Hochul will always advocate for funding the commuter rail, subways and buses that fuel the economic growth of the greatest city in the world,” a spokesperson for Hochul told CBS News.
But opponents of the program, including Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) and New York Republicans, say the toll hurts everyday commuters. Murphy sent a letter to Trump last week urging him to terminate the program as he had promised.
“The resulting congestion pricing plan is a disaster for working- and middle-class New Jersey commuters and residents who need or want to visit Lower Manhattan and now need to pay a big fee on top of the bridge and tunnel tolls they already pay. And adding insult to injury, New Jersey communities are not being fully compensated for the additional traffic and attendant pollution that will be re-routed to them because of congestion pricing,” Murphy wrote.
Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) have met with Trump about ending the program. Malliotakis, a Staten Island Republican, said Trump has “tasked the Department of Transportation to come up with options he has to halt the program.”
Lawler said Trump told him in their meeting last week that congestion pricing “needs to be killed.”
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Trump has told Hochul that he will not end the program without speaking to her first, CBS News reported.
He will speak with her again next week about the issue.
