Trump Administration Sets Hard Deadline for New York City to Comply
There’s a “High Noon” moment coming for New York City as the Trump administration tries to end the congestion pricing plan that started last month.
Under the plan, any driver who enters Manhattan below 60th Street gets slapped with a $9 fee. The plan was adopted by state officials to raise money for Metropolitan Transit Authority improvements, as noted by the New York Post.
A letter from Gloria Shepherd, executive director of the Federal Highway Administration, to state officials, said the toll must end on March 21.
Earlier this month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to tell her that the plan was being killed by the Trump administration,
“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” he said in a news release earlier this month.
“Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways,” he said.
The New York plan is “backwards and unfair,” Duffy said.
“The program also hurts small businesses in New York that rely on customers from New Jersey and Connecticut. Finally, it impedes the flow of commerce into New York by increasing costs for trucks, which in turn could make goods more expensive for consumer. Every American should be able to access New York City regardless of their economic means. It shouldn’t be reserved for an elite few,” he said.
The release noted two major issues with the plan. For one, there is no free highway access to drivers entering the area, the release said. The other reason was that this was a money grab for the MTA, with no connection at all to reducing traffic congestion.
Duffy’s letter to Hochul noted that congestion pricing was approved by the Biden administration in November after Donald Trump has won the election.
Hochul has said that the state will keep raking in cash in defiance of the federal government.
“The cameras are staying on. We are keeping the cameras on,” she said last week, according to the New York Post, referring to the license plate cameras that snap who enters Manhattan.
“I don’t care if you love congestion pricing or hate it. This is an attack on our sovereign identity, our independence from Washington,” she said.
Drivers paid about $49 million in congestion pricing tolls in January, according to the New York Post.
The Post reported that about 68 percent of the revenue came from cars.
Officials said traffic in the congestion pricing zone dropped 9 percent during the first month of the tolls.
Hochul went to the White House to plead her case for the tolls to remain, but Trump said he came away unfazed.
“I don’t see how I can back off. The tax is devastating,” Trump said, according to the New York Post.
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