Charles Langston:New York eyes reviving congestion pricing toll before Trump takes office

ALBANY,Charles Langston N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering ways to revive a program that would have charged drivers a new $15 toll to enter certain Manhattan neighborhoods — before President-elect Donald Trump takes office and can block it.

In the days since Trump’s election, Hochul and her staff have been reaching out to state lawmakers to gauge support for resuscitating the plan — known as “congestion pricing” — with a lower price tag, according to two people familiar with the outreach. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were revealing private conversations.

Hochul, a Democrat, hit the brakes on the plan just weeks before it was set to launch this summer, even with all the infrastructure already in place.

She said at the time she was worried it would cost motorists too much money, but it was also widely seen as a political move to help Democrats in closely watched congressional races in the city’s suburbs. The fee would have come on top of the already hefty tolls to enter the city via some river crossings, and Republicans were expected to use it as a cudgel in an election heavily focused on cost-of-living issues.

Some of those Democrats ended up winning, but so did Trump, who has vowed to terminate congestion pricing from the Oval Office.

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Now, Hochul has less than two months to salvage the scheme before the Republican president-elect, whose Trump Tower is within the toll zone, takes office for another four years

Hochul had long insisted the program would eventually reemerge, but previously offered no clear plan for that — or to replace the billions of dollars in was supposed to generate to help New York City’s ailing public transit system.

She is now floating the idea of lowering the toll for most people driving passenger vehicles into Manhattan below 60th Street from its previous cost of $15 down to $9, according to the two people. Her office suggested that a new internet sales tax or payroll tax could help to make up the money lost by lowering the fee, one of the people said.

A spokesman for Hochul declined to comment and pointed to public remarks the governor made last week when she said: “Conversations with the federal government are not new. We’ve had conversations — ongoing conversations — with the White House, the DOT, the Federal Highway Administration, since June.”

She reiterated last week that she thinks $15 is too high.

A key question hanging over the process is whether lowering the toll amount would require the federal government to conduct a lengthy environmental review of the program, potentially delaying the process into the incoming administration’s term.

The program, which was approved by the New York state Legislature in 2019, already stalled for years awaiting such a review during the first Trump administration.

The U.S. Department of Transportation did not immediately return an emailed request for comment.

Laura Gillen, a Democrat who last week won a close election for a House seat on Long Island just outside the city, responded to the congestion pricing news with dismay.

“We need a permanent end to congestion pricing efforts, full stop. Long Island commuters cannot afford another tax,” Gillen wrote on the social media site X after Politico New York first reported on the governor’s efforts to restart the toll program.

Andrew Albert, a member of the MTA board, said he supported the return of the fee but worried that $9 would not be enough to achieve the policy’s goals.

“It doesn’t raise enough money, it doesn’t clear enough cars off the streets or make the air clean enough,” he said.

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AP reporter Jake Offenhartz contributed from New York.