President Trump has floated a supposed a game plan for ending congestion pricing, saying he “will be able to kill it off in Washington through the Department of Transportation” — but said he was nonetheless discussing the plans with Gov. Hochul “out of respect.”
In a weekend interview in the N.Y. Post, Trump claimed he has “a lot of power” to end the toll, and referenced holding federal funding hostage. It remains unclear, however, what legal power if any the current president has to unilaterally upend either of the two approvals given by the federal Department of Transportation in the past two years.
Congestion pricing, approved by state lawmakers in 2019, is meant to reduce traffic congestion in Midtown and lower Manhattan while also raising a revenue stream that would allow the MTA to borrow $15 billion to fund its 2019-2024 capital program.
The law charged the MTA with developing and running the tolling program, in concert with the city and state departments of transportation.
In 2023, the federal DOT gave a crucial signoff to the MTA’s exhaustive environmental study, which modeled tolls between $9 and $23 for their expected impact on the environment, traffic and revenue. The feds’ finding of “no significant [environmental] impact” from the plan paved the way for the state to move ahead with the details of the toll.
The other federal DOT approval came late last year in the form of the an agreement under the feds’ Value Pricing Pilot Program — a George W. Bush-era program that allows toll revenue to be used for purposes other than road maintenance.
Three federal judges have already ruled in favor of the DOT’s findings on the environmental assessment.
In a statement indicating Trump might not be able to simply kill congestion pricing with the wave of his hand, the president also told The Post that he might withhold millions of dollars in federal funding from New York if the state doesn’t axe the toll itself.
MTA spokeswoman Kayla Shults referred the Daily News to Gov. Hochul’s office when asked Monday for comment. A spokesman for the Governor’s Office did not respond to a request from The News.
The toll, which has been in effect since January 5, charges drivers a base toll of $9 to enter Midtown and lower Manhattan. Preliminary data collected by the cameras used to assess the toll have shown massive decreases in cross-river travel times, even if overall traffic into the tolling zone has decreased by a modest 5%.
Trump also railed against bike lanes, telling The Post he wants to use his federal power to remove the municipal amenities. It is also unclear by what process Trump believes he can roll back 1,500 miles of bike lanes approved by the Mayor and New York City Council.