MTA approves Manhattan toll plan; congestion pricing set to start Jan. 5

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Monday approved the newly reduced $9 toll rate for its first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan, despite the objections of many Long Islanders and their representatives, including the MTA Board member who cast the lone vote against the plan.

The race is now on to have federal transportation regulators from President Joe Biden's administration issue final approval for congestion pricing before incoming President Donald Trump has the opportunity to nix the plan, as he has previously vowed to do. If the MTA gets its way, the new tolls will take effect on Jan. 5, after a 30-day public review period.

It's the second time this year the MTA voted on a toll structure for its Central Business District Tolling Program. The board approved a $15 base toll in March. But in a stunning reversal from her past support for congestion pricing, Hochul, citing affordability concerns, ordered a pause on the plan three weeks before the new tolls were to take effect in June. 

Days after Trump, a vocal congestion pricing opponent, won his election to the White House, Hochul proposed a new plan to charge most vehicles $9 for driving below 60th Street in Manhattan, then gradually increasing the toll rate until raising it to the originally proposed $15 in 2030. Toll rates will be about 50% higher for drivers without E-ZPass.

The board voted 12-1 in favor of the new toll rates. As he did before, David Mack, the Nassau County representative on the MTA Board, voted against the plan, saying he believed the MTA could find other ways to raise revenue, including by tolling currently free crossings. He also said congestion could be reduced by better enforcing traffic laws, like cracking down on double parking and trucks blocking lanes while unloading cargo.

"We have absolutely no enforcement of the parking or all of the other things that would contribute to congestion," Mack said.

Other Long Island representatives sounded off against congestion pricing Monday. Gathering in Wantagh, the supervisors of the towns of Hempstead, Oyster Bay, North Hempstead and Brookhaven urged Trump to curb MTA funding and pursue new litigation to stop the surcharge from going into effect.

Hochul is "trying to convince residents that by lowering the price [of the tolls] she's doing you a favor and saving you money," Hempstead Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr. said. "Residents see right through it."

Addressing the sizable opposition to the plan coming from Long Island, where nearly three-quarters of voters said they were against congestion pricing in a November 2023 poll, MTA chairman Janno Lieber emphasized that the overwhelming majority of commuters from Nassau and Suffolk use the LIRR, and would benefit from investments in the rail system that would be funded by toll revenue.

"There's no question that some people see political advantage in this, but I would remind all of us that less than 1% of the population of the region, and that includes on Long Island, is actually going to pay the congestion pricing toll," Lieber said.

Under state law, 80% of the money generated would go to New York City subways and buses, and the remaining 20% would be split evenly between the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North. MTA officials have noted that about 90% of Manhattan's 1.5 million daily commuters use transit.

Two MTA Board members from Long Island voted in favor of the new toll rates, including Sammy Chu, of Plainview, who called it "one of the most consequential things I get to participate in in my entire career."

Some obstacles still remain in the way of congestion pricing, including several lawsuits challenging its legality. Trump vowed in May to "terminate" the plan in his first week in office. In a statement Thursday, Trump said only that he "strongly" disagreed with the "regressive tax," but also expressed "great respect" for Hochul.

The Long Island supervisors gathered on Monday urged Trump to curb MTA funding and pursue new litigation to stop the tolls from taking effect. Lieber said he was confident the plan would "stand the test in the courts," given that it follows a program created by the Federal Highway Administration in the 1990s.

Lieber said "approval for a program that the feds have been operating ... is not something that can just be pulled away."