Gov. Kathy Hochul’s eleventh-hour decision to halt New York’s congestion pricing program put a big question mark on $15 billion in mass transit capital improvements the MTA planned to undertake over the next few years, many of which the agency says are urgently needed.
The governor announced on Wednesday that the toll — which would have charged $15 to most motorists entering Manhattan south of 60th Street and was set to begin June 30 — would be indefinitely postponed, arguing that she could not impose an added cost on already-struggling New Yorkers. It was a dramatic about-face for the governor, who until Wednesday had sung the praises of the program — which is intended to reduce punishing traffic in Manhattan and clean up the city’s air.
