Manhattan BP Levine wants congestion pricing details as outer-boro reps work to ‘delay or stop it’
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine on Wednesday urged the MTA to start hammering out details for its much-delayed plan to toll drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street —as members of Congress pushed to influence the program through their control of federal dollars.
“The people of New York City need congestion pricing done, and they need it done right. That’s what our recommendations are about,” Levine told reporters during a press conference at East 60th Street and Fifth Avenue.
“We are raising these important policy issues now because we don’t want the fight over these questions to delay us further.”
Levine’s proposals include steps to encourage use of bikes and buses — such as more electric Citi Bikes — as well as a tolling structure that takes into account fees already charged at bridges and tunnels entering the city.
Most Manhattanites do not own cars and the borough’s residents are the region’s most devout supporters of the congestion tolls, according to polls.
Residents and officials in the outer-boroughs and suburbs are less enthusiastic — and U.S. Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island) and Josh Gottheimer (D-New Jersey) responded to Levine’s call with proposals to prevent federal dollars from going to congestion pricing.
“While some are gathering today to push forward this congestion pricing plan, I remain strongly opposed to more taxation on the American people and will do everything possible to delay or stop it altogether,” Malliotakis said in a statement.
Under Malliotakis and Gottheimer’s plans, federal dollars could not be used for congestion pricing “until an economic impact analysis is completed” — and only if the tolls feature a “credit system” to rebate drivers who would otherwise pay twice to enter the city.
An MTA official said the authority does not plan to use federal money for the toll program — but officials do have the option to request it, a rep for Malliotakis said.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature approved the tolling plan in 2019, with the goal of funding the $55 billion MTA modernization program that is supposed to result in more reliable and frequent trains, in addition to dozens of new elevators and thousands of new electric buses to the region.
Transit leaders are currently undertaking an environmental review of the plan, which is slated for implementation in late 2023 — more than two years after initially planned.
Hochul has yet to establish the “traffic mobility review board” that will be tasked with setting tolls prices and authorizing any exemptions or discounts.
“The MTA has continued to forcefully advance the congestion pricing initiative set in motion by the State,” MTA Chief of External Relations John McCarthy said in a statement.
“We welcome the Borough President’s support for a program that will reduce traffic, bring significant environmental benefits, and provide substantial funding for capital initiatives to benefit mass transit.”
