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Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to relaunch the MTA’s congestion pricing
program with a $9 base toll for passenger cars — marking a 40%
reduction from the price previously approved by the MTA — according to
four sources briefed on the governor’s plan.

The sources, who were not authorized to speak on the matter on
Wednesday, said Hochul plans to eventually increase the base toll.
Hochul's office confirmed she will make an announcement regarding mass
transit funding on Thursday.

Sources who spoke to Gothamist named competing start dates for the new
toll program. One source with direct knowledge of Hochul’s plan, who
was also not authorized to speak on the topic, said the MTA board plans
to approve the new tolls during its next meeting on Nov. 20 — and that
the governor plans to launch the program Dec. 29. Another source
briefed on the topic said they were told the tolls would launch in the
first week of 2025.

The governor’s move comes just over a week after the election, and more
than five months after she abruptly paused congestion pricing weeks
before it was set to launch. New York state lawmakers first approved
the program in 2019, with the goal of charging drivers a fee for
entering Manhattan south of 60th Street. The MTA previously planned to
charge a $15 base toll starting June 30. The revenue from the program
is legally required to fund $15 billion worth of essential repairs to
the MTA’s transit systems.

In pausing the program, Hochul claimed the tolls would be too costly
for drivers who were already wrestling with inflation. Two sources said
the governor was asked by congressional Democratic leaders to hold off
on launching the tolls until after the election in hopes of winning
competitive House races in the city’s suburbs.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to kill congestion pricing once
he takes office, but transit advocates say Trump will have a harder
time dismantling the tolls if they launch by the time he takes office.
Local Republicans have vowed to challenge the program.

The lower toll price would save a motorist who drives into Manhattan
five days a week $1,500 over the course of a year compared to the prior
plan. But Hochul is expected to face questions as to whether the lower
toll will discourage motorists from entering the city to reduce
congestion in the same way a $15 toll would have, which was a key goal
of congestion pricing.

"Gov. Hochul paused congestion pricing because a daily $15 toll was too
much for hard-working New Yorkers in this economic climate," Hochul spokesperson Avi Small wrote in a statement on Wednesday. "Tomorrow,
the governor will announce the path forward to fund mass transit,
unclog our streets and improve public health by reducing air
pollution."

Multiple sources also said Hochul plans to announce a new slate of
revenue streams to fill a gap of at least $33 billion in the MTA’s
five-year construction plan that begins next year. The sources were not
briefed on where that revenue would come from — but transit advocates
have previously pitched state tax hikes as a way to pay for the plan.

Hochul’s announcement will come a day before her legal team is mandated
to provide its latest response to a pair of lawsuits filed by advocates
that aim to force the MTA to move forward with the tolls.

“They should be able to stand this up relatively swiftly,” said Justin
Balik, a state program director with the environmental group Evergreen
Action, which filed an amicus brief supporting congestion pricing in
one of the lawsuits. “The governor's team has thought about this
carefully. The MTA has thought about this carefully. All the
environmental work under NEPA has really been done already. We were
ready to go as folks know before the pause.”

The news of the program's relaunch is slated to set up a fight between
Hochul and local Republicans, who campaigned against the tolls ahead of
this month’s election.

On Wednesday, five Republican Congress members from New York sent a
letter to Trump asking him to permanently halt congestion pricing in
Manhattan by rescinding Federal Highway Administration approval.

The letter was signed by Reps. Michael Lawler of the Hudson Valley,
Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island and Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota
and Anthony D’Esposito of Long Island.

“Congestion pricing, the latest in a long string of tyrannical taxes,
has been pressed forward through consistent opposition about the burden
on New York families and workers,” they wrote.

https://gothamist.com/news/hochul-to-relaunch-congestion-pricing-with- 9-base-toll-sources

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