New York to revive driver congestion charge plan

New York said Thursday it will revive a controversial scheme to charge drivers entering parts of the city, a first in the United States, putting local authorities on a collision course with President-elect Donald Trump.

"Under this plan, the (transport authority) will implement a congestion pricing plan with a reduced daytime toll of $9 beginning in January," said New York governor Kathy Hochul, announcing the revival of the plan that she put on pause in June, reduced from the originally planned $15 base level.

Republican lawmakers have called on Trump to intervene in the case to terminate the revived plan, with the former president previously vowing to kill the scheme if elected.

"We request your commitment to ending this absurd congestion pricing cash grab once and for all," said the letter sent to Trump Tuesday by upstate New York Representative Mike Lawler.

The scheme, which had initially been due to come into force on June 30 at the $15 level, faced legal challenges, highlighting the difficulty of levying drivers in a country where the car is king.

The goal of the plan is to fund the New York subway and reduce congestion, and Hochul said it being revived after an assessment was done of how it would work with a lower fee.

- 'Unintended consequences' -

Hochul suspended the plan in June, saying there were "too many unintended consequences for New Yorkers."

"This $9 daytime toll is enough to secure the $15 billion in (transport authority) funding the congestion pricing was intended to support," Hochul said.

The scheme will charge drivers for venturing below 60th Street in Manhattan, an area that encompasses the business districts of Midtown and Wall Street.

Some 700,000 vehicles enter the area every day, with cars traveling just seven miles per hour on average due to gridlock, officials say.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a union representing 21,000 cab drivers, previously estimated the levy would have seen drivers lose $8,000 a year in income, based on the previous toll level of $15.

There were to be numerous exemptions as well as a low income discount plan and discounts for drivers entering the tolling zone more than 10 times in a month.

The governor of neighboring New Jersey, Phil Murphy, which shares several road crossings with Manhattan, said he was "firmly opposed to any attempt to force through a congestion pricing proposal in the final months of the Biden Administration."

Areas neighboring New York city have argued that a charge would hurt their businesses and impair their residents' ability to commute into Manhattan.

"All of us need to listen to the message that voters across America sent last Tuesday, which is that the vast majority of Americans are experiencing severe economic strains and still feeling the effects of inflation," he said in a statement referring to the election win that will put Trump back in power next year.

gw/dw