Meter

By Carl Campanile

New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer on Wednesday introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at banning the controversial $15 “congestion” toll, the first in the country, to enter Manhattan’s business district by south of 60th street.

“The MTA’s Congestion Pricing Plan is nothing more than a cash grab that will take more money away from commuters and shift traffic from Manhattan to the outer boroughs, increasing pollution in my district, particularly in communities minority,” said Malliotakis, a Republican who represents Staten Island. and southern Brooklyn said.

“The MTA’s war on cars is bankrupting commuters, and we will continue to use every legal and legislative tool we have to stop it,” he said.

Gottheimer, a Democrat, represents a northern New Jersey district that borders the George Washington Bridge.

“The mismanaged MTA congestion tax is nothing more than a blatant cash grab that will create more traffic, pollution and financial problems for Jersey and New York families. That is precisely why we are introducing legislation at the federal level to stop it,” Gottheimer said.

Gottheimer separately held a news conference outside MTA headquarters downtown demanding a breakdown of how the transit agency arrived at the estimate that Midtown’s new $15 toll would generate $1 billion in revenue. . He claims he would raise three times as much.

He complained that the MTA had rejected his legal requests for information.

Gottheimer said he will send a bipartisan letter with his New York Republican colleagues to the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee requesting a formal subpoena for the information he sought in his legal request and a hearing where MTA leaders can testify about the congestion tax. .

In response, a top MTA official, Long Island Rail Road President Rob Free, mocked Gottheimer when asked about the Garden State congressman’s criticism.

“Gottheimer – Goodheimer – I’m not sure of his name,” Free said during an unrelated news conference celebrating the LIRR’s 190th anniversary.

“I think I saw in a video that they took him here with a driver in a car. “I’m trying to understand why he didn’t take public transportation and New Jersey Transit over the river and use the MTA system,” Free said of Gottheimer to laughter from transportation advocates.

But the public overwhelmingly opposes congestion tolling.

A Siena College poll released Monday found that nearly two-thirds of voters in New York City and the Empire State oppose Manhattan’s new toll, spanning all cross-sections of residents.

Congestion pricing is being implemented because of a state law championed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic-controlled legislature in 2019; However, only 34% of Democrats support it.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Cuomo’s successor, has defended congestion pricing as a good thing to slow traffic, improve the environment and fund public transportation amid a slew of lawsuits to block it.

The toll could be collected starting in June.