Gov. Kathy Hochul hit the brakes on New York’s decades-in-the-making congestion pricing plan on Wednesday, shocking lawmakers and infuriating supporters of the initiative.
The plan would have raised as much as $1 billion per year, according to estimates by the transit authority, for the city’s crisis-plagued mass transit system by charging motorists to enter Manhattan’s central business district.
The plan was supposed to go into effect on June 30, but now it has been “indefinitely paused,” Ms. Hochul said.
So what happens next?
The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must vote
The idea to congestion price in New York was first conceived in 1952 but a plan was not approved until 2019. To halt its implementation, Ms. Hochul needs the approval of the 23-member board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees public transit in New York City and much of its suburbs. The board’s voting members are nominated by the governor, with others recommended by the mayor of New York City and the executives of the region’s suburban counties.