Congest pricing in limbo
Gov hits fed red tape for delay, worrying backers
Gov. Hochul put congestion pricing supporters in fear the program could be scuttled with remarks in a debate among Democratic candidates for governor.
“Now is not the right time,” Hochul said Tuesday night of congestion pricing, which would toll motorists below 60th St. in Manhattan and was approved by state lawmakers in 2019.
“I support congestion pricing,” Hochul went on. “We’ve been in negotiations with the federal government that has the say on the next step and they have now put some, let’s call them hurdles in the way, that we have to overcome. So this is not going to happen over the next year under any circumstances.”
Hochul’s staff sought Wednesday to allay worries about the future of the program, which has been debated for more than 50 years.
“While extensive questions from the federal government are causing delays, the governor directed her team to work closely with the federal government to provide responses as quickly as possible and keep the process moving forward,” said Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays.
Sam Schwartz, a transportation analyst who consulted on congestion pricing and has pushed for tolls in Manhattan since the 1970s, warned the program could die if it doesn’t launch next year.
“If the approval of congestion pricing doesn’t happen in 2023, it won’t happen in 2024 because it’s an election year,” said Schwartz. “I’m disappointed with the governor’s comments. I’ve heard for a half century that now is not the time for congestion pricing.”
The program is designed to reduce traffic in Manhattan, and its revenues are required by state law to finance $15 billion of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s 2020-24 capital plan, which aims to spend $51.5 billion on long overdue upgrades to the region’s transit infrastructure.
Schwartz pointed to a slew of starts and stops on plans to toll Manhattan-bound motorists that date to Mayor John Lindsay’s administration.
Officials under Lindsay in 1971 sought a 50cent round-trip toll over the East River bridges as a way to comply with the Clean Air Act, which was passed by Congress in 1970 and required New York City to reduce pollution from cars. City officials said the tolls could also keep subway and bus fares — just 30 cents at the time — from increasing.
Lindsay’s proposal floundered, and the fare went up to 35 cents in 1972 and to 50 cents in 1975 amid the city’s financial crisis.
The city in 1977 — under former Mayor Abe Beame — was still under the gun by the Environmental Protection Agency to comply with the Clean Air Act by tolling the East River bridges. But the tolls were unpopular, and former Brooklyn Rep. Liz Holtzman led a successful push to amend the Clean Air Act to nix the tolls.
Holtzman, 80, is again running for Congress in New York’s redrawn 10th Congressional District, which covers lower Manhattan and part of Brooklyn. She did not respond to a request for comment.
Former Mayor Ed Koch wanted similar tolls when he took office in 1978 as former President Jimmy Carter sought a new environmental mandate for New York on the Clean Air Act. But when Ronald Regan entered the White House in 1981, the feds dropped the idea, and the plan fizzled.
Another push in 2008 by former Mayor Mike Bloomberg to establish congestion pricing died when he failed to strike a deal with then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district covered much of lower Manhattan.
“I have seen very few politicians with the courage to say now is the time for congestion pricing,” Schwartz said.
The delay of the tolls has already imperiled the MTA’s current capital plan. Agency records show less than $4 billion of the $51.5 billion plan was funded as of March. The plan promised upgraded subway signals to make trains more reliable, hundreds of new buses, dozens of new elevators for disabled New Yorkers — and a general transformation of the way the city moves.
The MTA must submit another five-year capital plan to city and state lawmakers by the end of 2023.
“Gov. Hochul needs to deliver a positive vision for public transit that’s frequent, reliable and accessible,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the advocacy group Riders Alliance. “That hinges on congestion pricing.”
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber last year said he expected the feds to give the green light by the end of 2022, with a launch date by the end of 2023. Yet a struggle by agency officials to respond to 430 questions on the plan sent by the Federal Highway Administration in March has already moved back that time line.
“The MTA is fully committed to congestion pricing, is aggressively working through the federal process and appreciates the governor’s support,” said MTA spokesman John McCarthy.