The Federal Highway Administration on Friday preliminarily approved the MTA’s highly anticipated congestion pricing plan, which would charge drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street.
This triggers a 30-day public review period before the Federal Highway Administration makes its final determination, according to the letter it sent to the MTA on Friday.
If the plan goes through, New York would become the first state in the nation to have such a tolling system.
“Congestion pricing is a generational opportunity," said MTA Chief of External Relations John McCarthy, adding that it would reduce traffic and improve public transit.
New York Rep. Jerry Nadler also praised the move, saying congestion pricing is the “best way to get cars off our overly crowded roads.”
It is not yet determined how much drivers will have to pay. The MTA has appointed five members to a review board to recommend the price for tolls, as well as any exemptions.
The New York State Legislature had approved a congestion pricing plan in 2019, but it was first delayed by the Trump administration and then by the pandemic. Most recently, it was delayed by the environmental review process.
The MTA is expected to garner $1 billion in revenue from congestion pricing to help sell bonds that would generate $15 billion that will go toward its capital plan.
New Jersey officials have been greatly opposed to the MTA’s congestion pricing plan, as it affects many New Jersey drivers commuting into New York City with none of the revenue going into New Jersey public transportation systems.
On Friday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called the congestion pricing plan “unfair and ill-advised” because of its “greater financial burden on New Jersey commuters, double tolling, toll shopping, a lack of revenue for NJ TRANSIT, outsized environmental burdens on certain North Jersey communities, and financial impacts on the Port Authority’s capital budget.”
“Everyone in the region deserves access to more reliable mass transit, but placing an unjustified financial burden on the backs of hardworking New Jersey commuters is wrong,” he said in a statement. “Simply put, it is a money grab.”
Murphy said his administration will be looking closely at all legal options.
New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, one of the most vocal New Jersey elected officials against the congestion pricing plan, also opposed the recent federal move.
He disagreed with the environmental review, contending the environmental impacts to northern New Jersey and the Bronx were high.
“The Congestion Tax will send more trucks into northern New Jersey by the GW Bridge and into the outer boroughs to areas just outside of the tolling zone — hurting lower income families. The Bronx alone could face 700 more trucks every day contributing to massive pollution,” he wrote in a statement.
“We won’t stand for it in Jersey - the fight is just beginning,” he wrote. He also demanded that the Department of Transportation reconsider their decision in the next 30 days.
The tentative federal approval got praise from the public transit advocate group Riders Alliance, which views congestion pricing as the largest source of funds to upgrade New York City’s subway system and a way to cut the gridlock in Lower Manhattan that will mean faster bus service and a lower carbon footprint.
“After years of delays, which transit riders are all too familiar with, the federal government has finally decided that millions of New Yorkers, commuters, and visitors to our city can have nice things after all,” said Riders Alliance Executive Director Besty Plum.
