Photo: Nineteen Queens elected officials this week jointly issued a statement opposing the congestion pricing plan proposed by Move NY. File Photo.
A large contingent of Queens elected officials on the state and city levels this week issued a joint statement opposing the congestion pricing plan proposed by the grassroots transportation campaign Move NY.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz released the statement that was also signed by state Sens. Joe Addabbo, Jr., Tony Avella, Leroy Comrie, Toby Stavisky; Assemblymembers Jeffrion Aubry, Barbara Clark, Vivian Cook, Phil Goldfeder, Ronald Kim, Michael Miller, Michael Simanowitz, Michele Titus, David Weprin; Councilmembers Karen Koslowitz, Rory Lancman, I. Daneek Miller, Paul Vallone and Ruben Wills. All are registered Democrats.
The Move NY Fair Plan proposes to set tolls according to a formula: Higher tolls where transit options are most available and lower tolls where transit is either not available or a less viable option. The rationalization of tolls, according to MNY, results in pricing all vehicle trips entering or exiting Manhattan south of 60th Street but lowers the price of most crossings with non-Manhattan Central Business District origins or destinations.
The new tolls on the four East River bridges and the 60th Street cordon will be collected electronically, with E-ZPass; vehicles without E-ZPass will be billed via optical license-plate cameras and/or cell-phone apps; no tolls will be imposed on the Harlem River bridges; ratios between CBD tolls and other Metropolitan Transportation Authority bridges discounted under the Fair Plan will remain constant, MNY has pledged.
The new MNY tolling system: MTA’s major bridges — E-ZPass: $2.50 drop each way; cash: $5 drop each way MTA’s minor bridges — tolls drop $1 each way; East River bridges and tunnels — E-ZPass: $5.54 each way; Pay by mail: $8 each way. 60th Street — E-ZPass: $5.54 each way; Pay by mail: $8.
The pols said the plan is “far from fair and lacks any promise of returns.”
“It is fundamentally unfair to charge residents a fee to travel within one city,” they added. “It is certainly unfair to the families who live in the transit desert of Queens as it would landlock our borough.
“The ideas in the proposal for mass transit improvements are great. But without any direct connection between the revenues generated from the proposed tolls to those very improvements, there is simply no guarantee that this proposal will actually yield anything tangible or amount to anything more than just that: an interesting idea.”
The 19 officials went on to blast “the notion that there is only one way to generate additional monies for [the MTA] and our region’s infrastructure. Moreover, this proposal is not unlike the many other unfulfilled promises introduced over the years. This one does, however, have an equity deficit for many reasons, including but not limited to:
The proposal tolls all routes from Queens to Manhattan; there is inherent unfairness in the different charges for different residents of different boroughs; the proposal doesn’t guarantee that any of the funds collected will be spent toward bettering transportation access for Queens’ residents.”
Not all borough pols have summarily rejected the MNY plan.
“Move NY does what every other funding or tolling plan has failed to do – offer my constituents and other outer borough residents a fair deal,” said City Councilman Mark Weprin.
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
