The Trump administration has issued New York yet one more deadline to wrap up its first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program in Manhattan or undergo “serious consequences,” in line with a brand new letter shared Monday.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote to Gov. Kathy Hochul with a revised deadline of Could 21 to stop toll assortment efforts on autos getting into Manhattan’s Central Enterprise District. The letter comes simply someday after Hochul and the MTA ignored an April 20 deadline — which got here after an earlier March 21 deadline to finish this system.
In his letter, Duffy guarantees to chop off federal funding and sure approvals on street initiatives in Manhattan if Hochul chooses to not flip off the tolling program or if she fails to show this system’s compliance with federal legislation.
“We are giving New York one last chance to turn back or prove their actions are not illegal,” Duffy warned Monday in a press release.
“The federal authorities sends billions to New York—however we received’t foot the invoice if Governor Hochul continues to implement an unlawful toll to backfill the price range of New York’s failing transit system,” the secretary additionally stated.
The legality of town’s tolling program continues to play out in court docket, however to this point, judges have regularly sided with the state and the MTA.
Hochul provided a succinct response to Duffy’s letter: “I repeat: congestion pricing is authorized — and it’s working. Site visitors is down, enterprise is up and the cameras are staying on.”
The charge started Jan. 5 and is supposed to not simply cut back visitors jams but additionally elevate billions of {dollars} in income for New York’s subways, commuter trains and public buses.
However Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower and different properties are inside the congestion zone, had vowed to kill the plan as quickly as he took workplace.
The transit authority, in the meantime, has continued to tout the advantages of the tolling program, saying fewer autos at the moment are coming into the guts of Manhattan.
Round 560,000 autos per day entered the congestion zone in March, a 13% drop from the roughly 640,000 the MTA initiatives would have pushed by way of the realm with out the tolling scheme, in line with information the company launched earlier this month.
The company has beforehand stated it is on monitor to fulfill the $500 million in income initially projected this yr from congestion pricing.
The toll varies relying on sort of car and time of day and comes on high of tolls drivers already pay to cross bridges and tunnels into Manhattan.
Different huge cities around the globe, together with London and Stockholm, have related congestion pricing schemes.
On Thursday, a Manhattan federal decide dismissed a collection of lawsuits introduced by the native trucking business and different native teams difficult the toll.
Most of these lawsuits had argued the charge was accredited by federal transportation officers with out correct scrutiny and that the court docket ought to order the completion of a extra complete environmental influence research.
