Hochul faces congestion pricing deadline with Trump taking office

Congestion pricing advocates are imploring Gov. Kathy Hochul to lift her pause on the tolling plan before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to terminate it permanently if given the opportunity.

Hochul has said she anticipated the potential impact of a Trump victory on the future of congestion pricing and has a plan to address the matter by the end of the year. Hochul has not offered any details of that plan, but continues to maintain that the previously approved $15 toll for cars driving below 60th Street in Manhattan is too high.

On Friday, Politico reported that Hochul has approached federal transportation officials about enacting congestion pricing with a lower, $9 toll.

Hochul confirmed Wednesday that she recently spoke with officials in President Joe Biden’s administration about "the need to take affirmative steps to ensure that nothing compromises the MTA."

On Friday, Hochul said she will detail her congestion pricing plan "by the end of the year," although she provided no details.

She said, however, that a $15 fee "is too much" for many workers, including teachers.

"There are people who don’t have the option of working remotely," Hochul said. "Times are tough for people in our city and the surrounding areas."

She said she’s had continuing conversations with the federal government on the issue since June.

She also said she had a telephone call with Trump on a wide array of issues but provided no details on any talk about congestion pricing.

Lisa Daglian, executive director of the MTA Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, a transit advocacy group, said "the window is closing" to put the tolling plan in place.

"The president-elect has made it really clear that [congestion pricing] is DOA under his administration," Daglian said in an interview Thursday. "The time is really now or never."

After decades of debate and planning, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was poised to enact its Central Business District Tolling Program in June, when Hochul — previously a vocal supporter of congestion pricing — placed an indefinite pause on the plan, citing affordability concerns among New Yorkers.

Meanwhile, Trump has made his opposition to the plan clear, in May writing on social media that congestion pricing has been "a failure everywhere it has been tried" and predicting the new tolls would create "a big incentive not to come" to New York. He vowed on social media to "TERMINATE Congestion Pricing in my FIRST WEEK back in Office!!"

Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Although the MTA’s congestion pricing plan has already received most of the necessary regulatory approvals, it still requires a final sign-off by state and federal transportation officials. If Hochul’s pause lasts into January, that responsibility would land on Trump’s administration.

The MTA was counting on congestion pricing to deliver $1 billion in annual toll revenue that would be used to finance $15 billion in planned infrastructure upgrades, including on the Long Island Rail Road. Hochul has vowed to make the MTA whole for the lost toll dollars.

Asked about the added urgency to address congestion pricing before Trump is sworn in, Hochul on Wednesday said "this is a scenario that we planned for" and said she would announcing a "funding plan" for the MTA by the end of the year.

Congestion pricing supporters have suggested Hochul’s pause was motivated by concerns over voters rejecting Democrats who supported the measure. With the election over, Danny Pearlstein of the Riders Alliance, a transit rider advocacy group, urged Hochul to "flip the switch now."

"If there was any political upside to pausing billions of dollars in transit upgrades, it's over and done," Pearlstein said in a statement.

MTA officials have said they stand ready to start the tolling program as soon as they receive the green light, having already installed $500 million in tolling infrastructure, including cameras and E-ZPass scanners.

Asked about the potential impact of Trump’s presidency to congestion pricing, MTA officials deferred to a statement released by the transit authority’s chairman, Janno Lieber, on Wednesday, in which he noted the MTA worked with Trump during the first several months of the COVID-19 pandemic "to make sure transit was able to keep going."

"The MTA's approach is businesslike, focused on running great service to move millions of people, because when New York does well, the national economy does well," Lieber said. "We will make the case in Washington, where there is a long history of bipartisanship on transportation issues."

Congestion pricing opponents, including many on Long Island, welcomed the possibility of Trump delivering a death blow to the tolling plan. In a congratulatory letter to Trump sent Friday, Hempstead Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr., who has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of congestion pricing, said he hoped "this terrible tax" would be rescinded "under the sound and sensible leadership of the Trump Administration."

Opposition from Long Island elected leaders to the tolling plan has come from both parties. Laura Gillen, a Democrat elected Tuesday to the 4th Congressional District, on Friday called for "a permanent end to congestion pricing efforts, full stop."

"Long Island commuters cannot afford another tax," Gillen wrote on X.

With Michael Gormley

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.