Congestion pricing is going to be even worse than you think, and Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams are only fooling themselves if they think the public won’t blame them.
Yes, it was the Legislature and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo who set up this horror, but that won’t matter when the pain begins.
The tolls — $15 for cars, $24 to $36 for large trucks, every time you enter the zone below 60th Street in Manhattan — are wildly unpopular with every demographic of New Yorkers, who can see that it’s not just a tax on drivers.
There are many not in favor of the new congestion pricing that is being backed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. TNSAll city dwellers and tourists will feel the hit, as businesses pass on their higher costs — and not just delivery costs.
Witness how Mechanical East, a Brooklyn-based HVAC firm, says it’s adding a $15 fee for any service trips in the zone; that’s likely to be standard for all services.
And every delivery-dependent business in the zone will be seeing markedly higher costs, with no choice but to pass them on to customers.
Adams and Hochul have gone radio silent as fury over the plan soars and the list of groups filing lawsuits — Lower East Side residents, truckers, the United Federation of Teachers and 18 local lawmakers, more than half of them Democrats — grows. But this buck can’t be passed.
Hochul’s fingerprints, in particular, are already all over it: She loudly and proudly supported it in 2022.
Most arguments for the fee have fallen apart: It won’t reduce pollution and traffic congestion, just redistribute them — with the Bronx especially hard-hit.
This is the choice of New York’s leaders, rather than funding the MTA via general state revenues or clamping down on MTA expenses like insane overtime and other union perks or rampant farebeating.
New Yorkers, tired of being squeezed from every angle, don’t want congestion pricing — a plain money grab that will hurt businesses and tourism.
It’s the 11th hour, but not too late to call a dud a dud.
