New York City has been torn apart by a protracted legal wrangle between President Donald Trump and New York Democrats over congestion pricing. Underlying the conflict is a tussle between equity and tax revenue, pitting progressive initiatives against the working class. The president has imposed a March 21 deadline to halt the practice of charging folks $9 to drive through the Big Apple's "congestion zones," and with that date fast approaching, Governor Kathy Hochul says she's planning to keep her foot on the gas.
Congestion Junction
Congestion pricing imposes tolls on commuters traveling through Manhattan’s Congestion Relief Zone by tracking license plates to reduce traffic and pollution while raising funds to upgrade public transportation. Trump has consistently opposed such fees, condemning Gov. Hochul’s toll scheme as “the most regressive tax known to womankind.”
Democratic leadership has lacked consistency. Hochul implemented the plan, then paused it, and now embraces it. New York City mayoral wannabe Andrew Cuomo supported it but now opposes it, arguing it is “the right public policy,” but not when the city is suffering from post-COVID decline, high crime, homelessness, and a costly migrant crisis. Upon implementation, the congestion charge - the first in the nation - made NYC the most expensive city in the nation to drive in.
Opponents argue that the charge hurts business. Yet Hochul and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg hailed the 10% subsequent drop in commuter traffic as a reduction in pollution, not commerce. Additional criticism targets the nature of a pollution tax designed to shift drivers from cars to trains, buses, or the now-infamous NYC subway. Such fees consume a more significant percentage of a low-income worker’s wages than a wealthy stock trader’s in a slick BMW.
Broadway Bloomberg
These downsides went unaddressed in a recent pitch by Bloomberg, who gushed enthusiastically if unconvincingly that New York’s congestion pricing is good for the whole nation’s economy, adding, “And that’s something a businessman and native New Yorker like Donald Trump should appreciate.” In an op-ed posted on his eponymous news service, Bloomberg said mass transit “is the lifeblood of our economy,” that workers and businesses “are reaping the benefits of the congestion charge,” and that “[e]ven attendance at Broadway shows is up.”
The billionaire has pushed this program since 2007 and claims it will help commercial real estate prices: “[C]ongestion pricing will enhance property values — including Trump Tower and the Trump Organization’s other holdings.” The ex-mayor said that increased bus and train tolls will boost the economy as more drivers are forced to use mass transit. His chief refrain to justify the fees is money for the government:
“The congestion charge generated nearly $50 million over its first month, which is in line with estimates that it will raise about $600 million annually. Just imagine if it had been raising that money since 2007. More than $10 billion would have been invested in improving subway and bus performance, upgrading stations, and expanding service.
“In 2022, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority lost $600 million to fare evasion on subways and buses, and last year it may have lost $800 million. … The city, state and MTA need to do more to crack down on lawlessness and fare evasion. Trump can insist that they do so, and he has the leverage to succeed.”
Ironic Accounting
Numerous ironies leap from this odd plug. Trump is being roundly condemned for not lowering egg prices and objecting to regressive fares, and Joe Biden claimed that POTUS couldn’t stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border. Now Bloomberg, who has in the past called Trump “an ailing 78-year-old who much of the country despises” and “a dangerous demagogue,” is appealing to Trump to compel criminals to pay bus and subway tolls!
Bloomberg supported Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and the illegal criminal element that is rotting the Big Apple. He also complained that Trump’s expensive “mass-deportation effort” would stall economic growth without fixing fundamental issues. But the underlying problems in New York City include defunding its police forces and supporting illegal aliens whom Trump is supposed to now stop from hopping fares.
More than 175,000 illegal immigrants were funneled into New York City by the Biden administration, 41% of whom were Venezuelan. NYC Mayor Eric Adams sought to allow 800,000 illegals to vote before being blocked in court. Vickie Paladino, a councilwoman for the city, wrote in a New York Post op-ed, "[We] are spending more taxpayer money to care for foreign nationals than we are on the annual budgets of the NYPD, FDNY and Department of Sanitation, combined."
Newsweek reported:
“New York City has … spent upward of $1.45 billion just in fiscal year 2023 to shelter, feed and provide services to migrants. The city has said there is ‘no end in sight’ to the copious numbers of migrants and projects that an extended timeline of the current rate of migration means a cost to the city of approximately $12 billion by the 2025 fiscal year.
“Migrants coming to New York City are being given prepaid debit cards that in certain cases, like food assistance, dwarf the amounts provided to families of legal status.”
Tallying the True Toll
These costs outweigh the congestion pricing amounts extolled by Bloomberg as city-rescuing. The current plan is to allocate the funds to mass transit. Yet Cuomo challenged authorities in his New York Post article to put the additional money “in a lock box for more transit police … or for new hardware to stop fare beaters and collect hundreds of millions in lost revenue.” Cuomo protested, “Just think of the absurdity: The plan is for city taxpayers to pay for the MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] and for the migrant crisis! It’s outrageous. Then we wonder why we are losing population to Florida and other states.”
The head-butting between ideologies and legal positions will persist as the March 21 cutoff for New York’s congestion pricing directed by the US Department of Transportation approaches. Some legal experts claim the MTA, which filed suit, will prevail because only Congress has the legal authority to terminate the program. Opponents such as Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) stated in a press release from her office, “The cash grab is over. Governor Hochul needs to follow the law and turn the congestion pricing cameras off.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the commuting charges “a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners.”
Whatever the outcome of the legal fight, the court of New York public opinion is looking beyond congestion pricing to issues of public safety, equity for US citizens, and the ongoing crises seeded by destructive immigration policies. These cannot be blamed on Trump.
