Gov. Kathy Hawkle eliminated congestion pricing to get into Midtown because she believes too many people are afraid to ride the subway and so drive instead, former Gov. David Paterson said Sunday.
“In a private conversation with me, she said she was thinking about people who are afraid to take the subway and drive their old cars over the bridge. They have to pay a lot of money.” Patterson says “She really cared about the individuals that were affected,” she said on “The Cats Roundtable” on 77 WABC Radio.
“Hawkle recognized that some of the issues raised by opponents of congestion pricing are not going to go away,” said the former governor, who, like the governor, is a Democrat.
Felony assaults on passengers holding on to straps jumped more than 50 percent from 2019, before the pandemic, to last year, from 570 to 373.
These violent trends have prompted authorities to add more officers to the subway system, but overall traffic crimes still fell just 1% from January to March of this year compared to the first quarter of 2023, according to NYPD statistics.
Patterson acknowledged that Hockle’s last-minute change of policy came as a shock, given that “the June 30th deadline was looming” for the MTA to implement the nation’s first controversial $15 congestion charge on all lines in Manhattan below 60th Street.
Haukl denied speculation that he had put the toll initiative on hold to avoid Democrats running in battleground New York districts in November – those that could take control of the House – having to defend congestion pricing from fierce Republican attacks.
Patterson said he ultimately supported Hokele’s decision to repeal the tolls, arguing that she did not make such a significant policy shift purely out of political expediency.
“Her opponents have argued that this is a political move. … But I think it’s [unfair] At this point, it’s hard to think that the governor is just going to turn around and do it just to win a few elections. [congressional] “There’s not a lot of seating,” he said.
There is currently intense debate over how the MTA will cover transportation capital needs with an expected $1 billion annual revenue loss from Manhattan’s new tolls.
There has also been criticism that the DOT has already spent nearly $500 million on congestion pricing, including installing the technology.
“It’s still the right decision,” Patterson said of Haukle’s controversial move.
After the toll plan was scrapped on the final day of the Legislature session last week, Governor Hokel and state lawmakers were unable to agree on alternative funding for the MTA.
Transportation advocates who have supported congestion pricing are furious that the governor has abandoned the program and have been rallying to defend it.
“The 2 percent of New York commuters who drive into Manhattan are far wealthier than public transit users and those who drive elsewhere, and congestion pricing is an incredibly progressive policy and the only one that could raise billions of dollars in real funding on an ongoing basis for reliable, accessible subway service, while at the same time speeding up bus service and delivery, reducing emergency response times and air pollution,” Danny Pearlstein of the Riders Alliance said Sunday.
But congestion pricing is deeply unpopular, with a recent Siena College poll finding that nearly two-thirds of New York voters across all age groups and geographies oppose imposing a specific toll to enter Midtown.
The toll scheme was approved by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic-run Legislature in 2019. But even Cuomo said earlier this year that the state should put the brakes on congestion pricing, arguing that now isn’t the right time given New York’s slower-than-expected recovery from the pandemic.
