The Nation’s First Congestion Toll Scheme Bites The Dust – For Now

Posted on Sat 06/08/2024 by

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By Peter Murphy ~

New York State’s Governor, Kathy Hochul, this week decided to delay “indefinitely” the plan to impose congestion tolls in New York City, specifically slated for the lower half of Manhattan, from 60th Street south to Battery Park.This upcoming toll system would have been the nation’s first “congestion” barrier to require payment for traveling by vehicle to enter a specific pre-existing public space, not to finance a new bridge, tunnel, or highway. The toll revenue was estimated to generate $1 billion yearly, which would have been used to finance up to $15 billion in new debt for capital improvements to the city’s subway system and regional commuter railroads.

Alas, it was not to be — for the moment.

New Yorkers, along with commuters from New Jersey across the river and from nearby Connecticut, would have paid $15 for entering the congestion zone. Drivers of small and large trucks would have paid $25 and $35. The ripple effect of these new costs would be felt beyond the congestion tolls, with cab and Uber riders paying a surcharge, along with higher prices for every delivery of pizza or UPS package and every contractor fixing a residence or office.

The toll scheme was first approved by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature in 2019 and was slated to finally go into effect this June 30th – more than five years later. The plan also received approval by the Biden administration, which was required under federal law. That is how long it takes government these days to implement a lousy toll system, now with $500 million in wasted implementation expenses. This was not building the Golden Gate Bridge, which took less time, or some other major capital project.

The state of New York’s politicians approved the congestion toll tax for several reasons, as CFACT discussed at the time in 2019. In short, the scheme was a cash cow under the guise of reducing vehicle traffic in busy Manhattan, thereby lowering carbon emissions from cars and trucks to “fight climate change!” The toll proceeds would be used to maintain and upgrade mass transit – subways, trains, and buses – which is another dreamscape of the climate change lobby.

Vehicle traffic in midtown and southern Manhattan was likely to lessen to avoid paying tolls of $15 or more and as much as $3,000 annually per car, but any mitigation of CO2 emissions was a ruse since many of those same vehicles would have traveled and parked north of 60th Street and in New Jersey. That meant parking facilities in the upper half of Manhattan and the outer boroughs would have made a bundle, and the mostly minority neighborhoods in Harlem and the South Bronx would have increased traffic and vehicle emissions.

In other words, New York’s congestion toll scheme would have resulted in environmental injustice for “underserved communities,” about which President Biden and every climate politician/fanatic purports to care, except they disregarded such impact.

Governor Hochul’s stated reason for delaying the congestion tax was economic. “I cannot add another burden to working middle-class New Yorkers,” she said.

Nonsense. Hochul’s was a political calculation, not the fiscal welfare of her state’s residents.

In the last five years, as the financial reality of this toll tax got closer, more New Yorkers were complaining. Yet, city residents in and outside the congestion zone, commuters, and businesses alike were routinely ignored. Did Gov. Hochul just wake up and realize millions of ordinary New Yorkers were going to get smacked in their wallets?

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, is reported to have made the case to the governor to pull the plug since the new tolls were becoming a political time bomb in closely contested congressional races in the tri-state area.

Politicians are voracious for more taxpayer money to spend, which was the whole point of the money grab from congestion tolls. But politicians first need to stay in office to tax, borrow, spend, and control, which finally put a pause in the toll scheme.

The whole congestion toll saga of the last five years tells a familiar reality about climate change non-science and the politics that lurk. Politicians, NGO leaders, and other purveyors of climate doom will warn of the “existential threat,” demand action before the “tipping point,” and impose policies to purportedly address the issue. But it’s all an abstraction and a thoroughly dishonest one.

When gasoline prices skyrocketed in 2021, President Biden opened the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and urged OPEC and Venezuela to sell us cheaper oil with its resulting carbon emissions, which made a mockery of his fake climate alarmism.

Similarly, on the eve of when congestion tolls would take a bite out of voting New Yorkers, all the drivel from Hakeem Jeffries and Kathy Hochul about reducing carbon emissions and saving the planet became vapid and worthless, as they jettisoned their supposed principles and commitment to fighting climate change.

Climate politics are a means to expand power, make money, and exert societal control. When the inevitable higher costs hit home with real people, the subterfuge of climate change and its harmful policies gets exposed.

Peter Murphy is Senior Fellow at CFACT. He has researched and advocated for a variety of policy issues, including education reform and fiscal policy, both in the non-profit sector and in government in the administration of former New York Governor George Pataki. He previously wrote and edited The Chalkboard weblog for the NY Charter Schools Association, and has been published in numerous media outlets, including The Hill, New York Post, Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Read more excellent articles at CFACT  http://www.cfact.org/

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