New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has indefinitely halted the start of first-in-the nation traffic tolls aimed at reducing vehicle congestion just weeks before the plan was set to go live in Manhattan's central business district.
The tolls, originally set to take effect June 30, would have charged $15 to passenger vehicles traveling in Manhattan south of and including 60th Street. The plan, mandated by the state in April 2019, was originally designed to help reduce traffic and pollution in Manhattan's core business district. The tolls also were aimed to help fund the overhaul and other capital needs of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, operator of the region’s subway, bus and commuter railroad systems.
The plan was “enacted in a pre-pandemic period where workers were in the office five days a week, crime was at record lows and tourism was at record highs,” Hochul said Wednesday. “Circumstances have changed, and we must respond to the facts on the ground — not from the rhetoric from five years ago. … Implementing the planned congestion pricing system risks too many unintended consequences for New Yorkers at this time.”
While New York’s recovery from the pandemic has “been stronger and swifter than anyone imagined,” Hochul said, “it is by no means complete.”
She added that “we cannot afford to undercut this momentum” because the city's “delicate recovery” could be “jeopardized.”
She pointed to the rise in Manhattan's office vacancy rate to more than 20%, with workers now usually going to the office between Tuesday and Thursday, a pattern that she said has hurt area restaurants and other businesses and services.
With the plan, “drivers can now choose to stay home altogether, telling employers they need to work fully remote again,” Hochul said. “They might just change their patterns and skip the visits to the city on a Saturday with their family or going out to the theater or a restaurant.”
She said the state is exploring other funding sources for the MTA's capital needs.
Objections to Tolls
Hochul's change of plan comes as area governments representing commuters to the city and other groups have voiced their objection to the tolls, with some having filed lawsuits against the plan's implementation. The Trucking Association of New York, for instance, on May 30 filed a lawsuit against MTA, arguing the plan unfairly targets trucking and logistics companies by charging them “far higher rates” than passenger vehicles, according to its posts on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who also has objected to the plan, said Wednesday in a statement that “the success of Manhattan is inextricably linked to the prosperity of the entire tri-state area.”
Still, the dramatic halt of the plan, said to be decades in the making, also has disappointed its supporters.
Riders Alliance, a membership organization of subway and bus riders in the city, described on X Hochul’s move as the “antithesis of leadership.”
Trade group the Real Estate Board of New York said the plan's halt should be temporary.
“Congestion pricing will provide environmental and transportation benefits that will make New York City more competitive on the national and international stage,” REBNY said in an emailed statement to CoStar News. “Any delay in its implementation should be of a limited duration.”
Carlo Scissura, president and chief executive of the New York Building Congress, which lobbies for the city’s construction industry, said congestion pricing is New York’s “greatest opportunity to ‘fix the MTA.’”
"We are living in a bad episode of 'The Twilight Zone,'” Scissura said.
Citizens Budget Commission, separately, described the congestion pricing plan as the "transit trifecta," saying it provides "critical funding for transit, reducing emissions, and easing congestion." The commission's president, Andrew Rein, said in a statement that "we should be staying the course."