State lawmakers on Friday were on the verge of agreeing to a congestion pricing plan for New York City, the first in the nation that would charge motorists for driving into a central business district.
“I think we’re at the finish line,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said.
“Just have to dot the I’s and cross the T’s,” agreed Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said: “I believe conceptually we have an agreement, but now we have to go through the details.”
The governor added: “I said, it’s not just the congestion pricing, it’s also the MTA reform issues. Because I said I would not support more funding for the MTA unless I feel comfortable that we had a better MTA, more efficient, more effective. So the devil is all in the details, right? So that’s what we are still working through.”
State Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-Queens), who chairs the committee that oversees the MTA, said the congestion fee would be imposed starting in January 2021, after the infrastructure is set up — and after the 2020 legislative elections.
A panel is supposed to be formed to determine the fee for vehicles entering Manhattan below 61st Street.
Officials in New Jersey were upset that their constituents who use the George Washington Bridge might not get the same deal as those who drive through the Holland and Lincoln tunnels by having those tolls count against the congestion fee.
“By all accounts, and again, this a plan that is being put together still as we speak, it looks like the Holland and Lincoln Tunnel will be included and the George Washington Bridge will not be and that’s unacceptable,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said. “It’s double taxation which we can’t envision, so that needs to be included and I hope somewhere in here, when they whack all of this money out, some of it gets invested to relieve the burden New Jerseyians have.”