Former governor and potential mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo opposes Gov. Kathy Hochul’s controversial $9 congestion toll to enter Midtown Manhattan, The Publish has realized.
It’s the primary time Cuomo has weighed in on the $9 commuter tax since Hochul unveiled it after the November elections.
“It is undeniable that New York is in a dramatically different place today than it was in 2019, and without a study forecasting [the toll’s] consequences based on facts, not politics, it could do more harm than good to New York City’s recovery,” Cuomo spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi instructed The Publish on Sunday, referring to his boss’s stance on the brand new commuter tax.
Cuomo is kind of the daddy of congestion pricing within the US. He was largely answerable for muscling the first-in-the-nation congestion toll plan by means of New York’s legislature in 2019 to assist fund mass transit and curb visitors in Manhattan’s central enterprise district.
However he has since backed off the tactic, writing in a Publish op-ed column in March, “The people of New York know this is not the time to implement congestion pricing,” whereas citing a shaky post-COVID financial restoration and subway crime.
He feels the identical approach now despite the fact that the toll was lowered by Hochul from $15 to 9 earlier than it takes impact subsequent Sunday, Jan. 5.
Cuomo’s reversal comes as he’s weighing a political comeback bid for New York Metropolis mayor.
He resigned as governor in August 2021 after accusations of misconduct and beneath menace of impeachment — although he’s denied wrongdoing.
Azzopardi mentioned Cuomo nonetheless believes congestion pricing is “ultimately the right policy” and that’s why he fought to approve it. However “the question is whether now is the right time to implement it,” the rep mentioned.
“Congestion pricing is premised on a safe and reliable subway system, and given the obvious lack of confidence the public currently has in the subway system – combined with the tenuous state of New York City post-COVID – the Governor called for a data-driven study on the impact of congestion pricing to inform the timing of such a major policy change and to ensure New York was not creating additional obstacles to its comeback,” Azzopardi mentioned.
There have been 10 murders within the subway this yr, the very best murder tally in 25 years. That determine contains the horrifying arson homicide of a sleeping straphanger on a prepare final week, allegedly by the hands of a sadistic unlawful Guatemalan migrant.
A rep for Hochul — who served as Cuomo’s lieutenant governor — fired again at her predecessor’s shifting stand and accused him of “gubernatorial mismanagement.”
“Drivers upset about paying a $9 toll when entering Manhattan should remember two things: Andrew Cuomo is the reason they’re paying a toll, and Kathy Hochul is the reason it’s 40% lower than originally envisioned,” mentioned Hochul spokesman Avi Small.
“Governor Hochul took office in 2021 — two years after congestion pricing became law — and got to work fixing the mess she inherited at the MTA following a decade of gubernatorial mismanagement,” Small added.
Toll opponents welcomed Cuomo’s change of coronary heart, however famous the ex-governor is the one who put the problem entrance and middle.
“It’s nice to see that now Cuomo recognizes what a bad idea congestion pricing is, but we won’t forget that he was the one who signed it into law just like the bail reform and sanctuary state policies that have made us less safe,” mentioned.Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).
“Maybe he should have listened to Republicans before championing these disastrous policies,” added Malliotakis, who additionally challenged Hochul to trip the subway with out her state police safety element.
Hochul initially tabled a $15 proposed toll to enter Midtown south of sixtieth Road, then infamously waited until after the election to push a $9 commuter tax.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority additionally has the authority to boost the tolls by 25% on gridlock alert days.
However Hochul, who largely controls the MTA, derailed the gridlock surcharge final week after an unique Publish report concerning the outrageous add-on.
Malliotakis and different congestion-pricing foes are interesting to President-elect Donald Trump, who opposes congestion pricing, to cease the toll, which was authorised by the Biden administration.
“I think there’s an avenue for President Trump to intervene and stop it,” Malliotakis mentioned on 77 WABC radio’s the “Cats Roundtable” present Sunday. “[We] do have a lawsuit nonetheless in courtroom, as does New Jersey.
“We’re still hopeful that we can stop this congestion pricing cash grab that will cost commuters thousands of dollars,”
A majority of New Yorkers — 51% — oppose a congestion toll on Manhattan commuters, in accordance with a latest Siena School ballot. Solely 29% of these polled mentioned they had been supportive of the congestion tax with one other 20% saying they had been not sure or had been within the center.
The toll is backed by transit advocates and environmental teams, the Regional Planning Affiliation and the Partnership for the Metropolis of New York, a prime enterprise advocacy group.
