Photo Courtesy of Assemblyman Weprin’s Office
“New York’s struggling middle class cannot afford another regressive tax in the form of a congestion pricing,” Assemblyman Weprin (c.) said.
By Michael V. Cusenza
What once was a politically fraught vision for relieving the daily reality of Manhattan thoroughfares choked with traffic for miles seems set to become part of the State Budget on Monday as Albany lawmakers have already begun hashing out details of a congestion pricing plan aimed at saving the archaic subway system and unclogging crowded Central Business District streets.
“Safe to say that the Assembly is ready to go forward on congestion pricing,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said on Monday via The New York Times. “We’re at the point where the Assembly members understand the need to fund the MTA.”
In February, Gov. Andrew Cuomo indicated that such a plan was the only way to save the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In a speech, the governor said the “only logical and realistic option” to provide an ongoing and dedicated revenue stream to the MTA, and prevent a nearly 30-percent MTA fare hike or further deterioration of the transit system, is through congestion pricing.
In October 2017, Cuomo convened the Fix NYC Advisory Panel and tasked it with developing recommendations to address the severe traffic congestion problems in Manhattan’s CBD and identify sources of revenue to fix the ailing subway system. According to the group’s proposal, released in January 2018, all drivers would be charged to enter the CBD – an area bounded by 60th Street on the north and Battery Park on the south, the Hudson River on the west and the East River on the east – during weekday business hours. Fix NYC has crafted a number of variable rates that would incentivize drivers towards non-congestion hours by reducing tolls at certain times and it would be implemented with electronic tolling. Funds would be put in a lockbox for MTA capital projects, the governor has pledged.
Cuomo isn’t the only one who has been urging legislators to adopt a congestion pricing plan. A coalition of Southeast Queens transit riders and labor and other advocacy organizations rallied on Thursday at the Jamaica Center Subway Station.
“This is about equity,” said Transport Workers Union Local 100 Vice President J.P. Patafio. “If you can drive a car into Manhattan, you can afford congestion pricing. If you’re taking a bus, you can’t afford poor equipment or crowded lanes that make you miss your transfer. If you’re late to work, there are real consequences. This is about proper funding for the most important transit system in America. We have to get behind it and we have to do even more than congestion pricing. The great majority of people depend upon it.”
However, it’s not like congestion pricing has universal support. On Sunday, Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Richmond Hill), one of the plan’s most vocal critics, led a press conference at Tramway Plaza at the base of the Queensborough Bridge.
“New York’s struggling middle class cannot afford another regressive tax in the form of a congestion pricing,” Weprin said. “This debate should not be rushed and we need to look to alternatives that penalize congestion and tax the wealthiest New Yorkers. I look forward to a healthy discussion on alternative solutions that will be fairer to all New Yorkers.”
