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CityAndStateNY.com
August 8, 2022
Congestion pricing’ obstacle: exemption
mendation will be that no further carve-outs or a very limited number should be included. Transit advocates were also pushing for fewer exemptions, arguing that the road to carve-outs and special dispensations to forgo the congestion pricing toll was a slippery one. MTA officials have often pointed out that the more exemptions that are created, the higher the toll will be for those who have to pay it, because the program is required to fund $15 billion in capital improvements. At least a couple members of the new Traffic Mobility Review Board were well aware of the slippery slope of offering exemptions to congestion pricing. But when another round of public hearings on the program kicks off later this month, the calls for exemptions – calls Adams himself has made – will likely
only grow louder. “I think they’re going to be under tremendous political pressure,” said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “There’s going to be a lot of sympathetic voices. You’re going to have people say, ‘I have to drive my kids to a special school in Manhattan. I have to go get medical treatment in Manhattan. I have to drive to visit my elderly parents.’ Everybody is going to have a truly sympathetic point of view. But if you start offering these exemptions, then you basically don’t have a program.” Kathryn Wylde, the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City and one of the members of the Traffic Mobility Review Board, told City & State that she wanted to limit exemptions, echoing advocates’ argument that including too many could defang
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FTER YEARS OF moving at a tired crawl, New York’s congestion pricing program is finally picking up speed. A draft of the environmental assessment for the road tolling program in Manhattan below 60th Street is expected to be released this week, and the six members of the Traffic Mobility Review Board, which will recommend the specifics of the fee structure, have all been named. They included five business and real estate leaders approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, and Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen, who was named to the board by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Congestion pricing is expected to raise $1 billion in annual revenue once it’s implemented, which will be used to finance crucial infrastructure and accessibility upgrades in the MTA’s capital plan. Few disagree that that revenue is needed by the cash-strapped MTA. But a lot of people don’t want to pay for it. Even among proponents of congestion pricing – or people who have begrudgingly accepted that the tolling program is coming to New York City – there are those who argue that certain vulnerable groups should be exempt from paying. At the 18 hours’ worth of public hearings held on the program last fall, exemptions were argued for on behalf of motorcyclists, seniors, outer borough and New Jersey residents, first responders, commercial truckers, people traveling to medical appointments and more. Those calls came from residents and lawmakers too, including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who wanted Garden State drivers credited not just for trips to Manhattan via the Hudson River tunnels but also for the George Washington Bridge to avoid “double taxation.” The law that created the program included only three exemptions – for emergency vehicles, vehicles carrying people with disabilities and for residents of the congestion zone who earn $60,000 or less annually. (The latter would be repaid for the cost of tolls in a tax credit.) The Traffic Mobility Review Board was tasked with considering any other exemptions, though it’s possible their recom-
