(The Center Square) — The Trump administration is giving New York another month to shut down its congestion pricing program after the state blew past a Sunday deadline to halt the controversial tolling plan.
In a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy gave the state until May 21 to dismantle the tolling system or risk losing federal funding and approvals for certain projects from the Federal Highway Administration. The program was supposed to stop by March 21, but the Department of Transportation extended it into April 20, and Sunday’s deadline came and went with the tolling system still in place.
Duffy said New York needs to explain why it allowed the program to continue after the DOT cancelled federal permits in February. He accused Hochul of engaging in “class warfare” with the tolling system, saying it “prices working-class Americans out of accessing New York City.”
“The federal government sends billions to New York — but we won’t foot the bill if Governor Hochul continues to implement an illegal toll to backfill the budget of New York’s failing transit system,” Duffy said in a statement. “We are giving New York one last chance to turn back or prove their actions are not illegal.”
Hochul posted a short video on social media Monday in response to the DOT’s latest letter, saying she has no intention of shutting down the congestion pricing program.
“Another day, another threatening letter from the Department of Transportation about our congestion pricing program,” the Democrat said. “Well, let me repeat this for those who didn’t hear me the first 10 or 11 times. Congestion pricing is legal. It’s working. Business is up. Traffic is down. And the cameras are staying on.”
Duffy said that if the Federal Highway Administration determines that New York is out of compliance, the agency will halt all advance construction projects throughout Manhattan except those deemed essential for safety. The feds will also stop any pending environmental approvals for projects in Manhattan, except for safety projects, and take other punitive actions, he said.
“The corrective measures noted above may be expanded to other geographic areas within the State of New York, if any noncompliance continues,” Duffy wrote.
New York’s first-in-the-nation toll for drivers entering Manhattan’s Congestion Relief Zone during peak hours got underway on Jan. 5. Under the program, most passenger cars and trucks pay a $9 toll. Revenue from congestion pricing tolls is earmarked to finance $15 billion worth of repairs to the city’s cash-strapped mass transit system.
Hochul and other New York leaders argue that the program is already reducing tailpipe pollution and drumming up more funding for the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York City’s fleet of buses, trains and subway cars. The MTA has filed a lawsuit with environmental groups seeking to block the DOT withdrawal of federal permits for the project.
However, Duffy said the program is “not consistent” with the Federal-Aid Highway Program, which was established and funded as a ‘user-pay’ system through the federal gas tax.
“New York’s cordon pricing program imposes a disproportionate financial hardship on low and medium-income hardworking American drivers for the benefit of high-income drivers,” he wrote. “This is a breach of the promise made to the hardworking American taxpayers whose gas taxes have funded the existing Federal-aid highway system in this area.”
