The program will put in place a fee for vehicles trveling below 60th Street in Manhattan….
The policy has faced stiff oppostion from some New Yorkers and New Jersey…..
The money from the fee’s would go to the city/state MTA …..
The Governor voiced concerned that fee would hurt the New York City and New York State economy by driving some commerce away from the area….
And was NOT a good consumer move for Democrats to have to have on their backs….
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Wednesday that she was shelving the long-awaited tolling scheme known as congestion pricing, just weeks before it was to go into effect.
“After careful consideration I have come to the difficult decision that implementing the planned congestion pricing system risks too many unintended consequences,” Ms. Hochul said, adding: “I have directed the M.T.A. to indefinitely pause the program.”
The decision, Ms. Hochul said, was not an easy one, but nonetheless crucial in light of the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic on working families and New York City’s economy.
The congestion pricing plan, the first of its kind in the nation and a program that has been decades in the making, was slated to start June 30. Drivers using E-ZPass would have paid as much as $15 to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street….
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“Let’s be real: A $15 charge may not seem like a lot to someone who has the means but it can break the budget of a hard-working middle-class household,” Ms. Hochul said.
Word of the governor’s last-minute misgivings began to circulate in Albany on Tuesday night, and quickly sent shock waves through the New York State Capitol by Wednesday morning, the penultimate day of the legislative session.
Few could say that they loved congestion pricing — a politically unattractive proposal championed by both economists and environmentalists as the solution not only to the financial woes of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs New York’s subway and buses, but also the city’s infamous gridlock.
But after decades of debate, hearings, studies and planning, most Democrats had made a grudging peace with the plan — none more publicly than Ms. Hochul, who has defended it as a necessary step toward rebuilding New York’s economy….
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But even as transit advocates decried the move, an undercurrent of support was stirring among lawmakers, particularly those representing purple districts.
“Many see it as welcome news,” James Skoufis, a Democrat who represents Orange County in the State Senate said, adding that despite the plan’s approval five years earlier, opposition had been growing in the Legislature. “Some of it is outspoken, some of it is quieter, but it is widespread….
Note…
Post Pandemic has had TONS of past transit users working from home , cutting the system’s revenue….