New York House Republicans attack congestion pricing from 'every street' with the aim of abolishing the controversial toll system as President-elect Donald Trump vows to 'stop' it from the White House It's a plan.
“We're looking at every avenue from the executive branch to the legislative branch to the judiciary to try to crush this because these are bulls,” Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler told the Post on Friday. . “That's a scam.”
Opposition to congestion pricing faces Congress, courts and the federal bureaucracy after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that she would reinstate a program that imposes a $9 toll on cars entering Manhattan's 60th Avenue and below in the new year. Full court coverage was promised.
According to the governor's office, the toll will increase to $12 by 2028 and jump to the originally planned $15 after 2031.
Mr. Lawler's full commitment to tolls extends to the Internet. Lawler, a possible 2026 gubernatorial candidate, has launched a website.congestion pricesucks.comOn Friday, Hochul claimed he was asking motorists to “bail out the MTA because of some crappy budgeting.”
“This congestion pricing system represents a huge new tax on working families, daily commuters, college students, and local residents who simply want to travel within the city they call home,” the site says.
A senior Republican aide said a bipartisan group of lawmakers is prepared to immediately introduce and pass an amendment to withhold federal funds from New York if Hochul's plan moves forward when the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2025. He said there is.
“We expect it to happen in the first six months of this year,” the aide said, “and it could be sooner,” but that will depend on whether President Trump takes any executive action. He pointed out that
The governor's announcement drew praise from congestion pricing supporters who were unhappy with his last-minute decision over the summer to “pause” the plan, but sparked renewed protests from opponents, including Trump. happened.
He lambasted Hochul for reinstating “the most regressive tax known to women (or men),” but notably did not say whether he would continue with the past. is. promise to finish I participated in this program during my first week at the White House. His team only provided Thursday's statement in response to a request for comment from The Post on Friday.
But politicians and other operatives interviewed by the Post say the courts may be the best route for opponents to end congestion pricing before President Trump takes office on January 20. said.
A judge could delay the expected Jan. 5 start of fees by granting an injunction in a high-profile anti-congestion pricing lawsuit from Staten Island lawmakers and the American Federation of Teachers.
Failing that, both Lawler and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island) believe the Trump Department of Transportation could unilaterally revoke approval of the Biden administration's toll plan. he told the Post.
Such measures would have to be challenged in court by Hochul and his supporters to maintain approval.
“I believe the Trump administration has sufficient grounds to cancel this agreement,” Lawler said. “And let Governor Hochul take it to court. If she believes so strongly in this great strategy and policy, then she can take it to court and own it.”
“I think a lawsuit would probably be the most effective because it violates federal law and does not require a complete and thorough environmental impact statement as required by law.” [The National Environmental Policy Act]” Malliotakis said. “The Biden administration just rubber stamped NEPA without requiring compliance.”
The Biden administration gave New York City and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority permission in 2021 to conduct an environmental assessment of the effects of congestion pricing, a review that was less rigorous than critics had hoped.
After taking office, the Trump administration could try to argue that its full environmental impact statement is legitimate in a new legal battle.
But Hochul and MTA officials are keenly aware that the plan could face fierce challenges from the administration and other opponents.
The governor's revised proposal to charge tolls at $9 instead of $15 is not a major change, and the MTA Board of Directors' vote scheduled for Nov. 18 is not a completely reworked proposal itself. , there is a high possibility that “updates'' of congestion charges will be adopted.
Toll proponents see this as a strategy to make the nation's first toll program more resilient to legal and administrative challenges.
“The reinvigoration of congestion pricing is being done in a way that makes it as rigorous and sensible as possible against legal challenges, including the $15 tolls approved by legal challenges. “This includes a phased transition to the next generation,” Rachel Faus, senior policy adviser at congestion advocacy group Reinvent Albany, told the Post.
“It was structured that way to ensure that legal challenges are met as rigorously as possible,” Faus said.
The swirl of ambiguity comes as New York House Republicans (already this week sent a letter to the president-elect asking him to repeal what they call “the latest in a long line of tyrannical taxes”), while other opponents also weigh in on the murder bill. I started paying attention. As a plan First reported by Gothamist.
“It's safe to say there's been a lot of discussion” about eliminating congestion pricing, a House Republican aide familiar with the matter told the Post Friday.
“The letter we wrote to the president-elect and Ms. Hochul's rush to implement it immediately after the letter shows that this has always been about politics on her side,” the aide added. .
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, criticized Hochul's reinstatement as “insane,” saying it would impose an additional $2,500 a year in tolls on car commuters in the Garden State. He said he would work with anyone within the organization to eliminate the fee.
But Congress could reach an impasse in the fight to repeal congestion pricing.
“I can't see [House Speaker Mike] “Mr. Johnson is wasting legislative time on the New York City congestion bill in the first year of the Trump administration,” another congressional aide said, adding that this could be a decision by the next transportation secretary, who has not yet been officially named. He pointed out that it is highly sexual.
— Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
