Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just nixed the congestion pricing in New York City in what is said to be a major blow to Governor Hochul.
The congestion pricing was charging $9 for people entering Manhattan at a certain area.
Here’s more from the New York Post:
Congestion pricing, we hardly knew ye.
New York City’s spectacularly unpopular congestion pricing scheme is on death row as the Trump administration announced Wednesday it is pulling its approval of the toll — slamming it as “backwards and unfair” — in a major blow to Gov. Kathy Hochul, The Post has learned.
The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration terminated the approval of the controversial program, according to a letter Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent to Hochul on Wednesday afternoon
“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” said Duffy, noting that commuters entering NYC have already financed the construction and improvement of city roadways through their taxes.
“But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It’s backwards and unfair,” he said, blasting the program as harmful to small businesses in the Big Apple that depend on customers from New Jersey and Connecticut.
The department will officially rescind the Nov. 21 agreement signed under the Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP) that imposed a stiff $9 surcharge for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street starting in January.
“Every American should be able to access New York City regardless of their economic means. It shouldn’t be reserved for an elite few.”
The DOT said the congestion pricing toll runs counter to the federal highway aid program, which prohibits tolling on roads built with federal funds unless Congress grants an exception.
Ryan Girdusky wrote that President Trump should get a statue in New York for nixing this:
If Trump does this, there should be a statue of him at the entrance to every bridge and tunnel in Queens, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. https://t.co/qoqG1QDRhR
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) February 19, 2025
: President Trump CONFIRMS it is dead: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
