ALBANY, N.Y. — New York legislators on Sunday passed a state budget for 2020 which will dramatically change traveling within New York City, introducing “congestion pricing” fees for drivers in Central or Lower Manhattan to fund improvements by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The budget of more than $175 billion also includes new taxes on sales of residences for $1 million and up, as well as on internet purchases. The fees and taxes are expected to help contribute $15 billion to help transportation in New York.
Along with the new revenues, the new budget requires the MTA to develop a reorganization plan by June. Additionally, MTA Board appointments will need to align with gubernatorial terms and the MTA will see an independent forensic audit and efficiency review. Creation of a major construction review unit will review major projects as well. [See “New York MTA proposal would reorganize agency, provide funding through congestion pricing,” Trains News Wire, March 1, 2019.] The money will help fund New York City Transit’s previously-announced Fast Forward plan, which promises upgraded CBTC signal systems, new accessible stations, and repair work at more than 150 stations.
The concept of congestion pricing was originally suggested by New York Mayor John V. Lindsay and approved by New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1973. The plan was to bring pre-catalytic converter New York City into compliance with the federal Clean Air Act by placing tolls on the East and Harlem River bridges. That would have reduced motor vehicle traffic and raised money for the MTA. Rampant opposition from trucking and taxi companies killed the proposal, although the MTA then received $40 billion in investments to keep the subways running.
The concept of market-based congestion pricing on surface vehicles will be a first for the United States, although it has been used in Singapore since 1975, and in other cities as well, including London and Milan. New York’s electronic version would be run by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the division of the MTA that oversees seven bridges and two tunnels in New York. All revenue would go to the MTA, with funds slated strictly for capital improvements. Fewer vehicles on New York City streets would speed Manhattan traffic, much of which proceeds at a pace barely surpassing a fast walk.
The new fees will not take effect until 2021. A committee will determine full details of the congestion pricing plan, including potential exemptions for low-income individuals, those with disabilities, or other groups. At least one state legislator wants to exempt all New York City residents, but widespread exemptions would likely boost the toll cost for others or reduce the funds raised for the MTA.
The “mansion tax” will be assessed beginning July 1. It calls for one-time tax beginning at 1 percent for homes costing $1 million and caps at 4.15 percent on residences of $25 million and above. Revenues collected would be combined with congestion pricing revenue. No start date has been set for the internet sales tax, which will contribute more funds to the MTA.
Mr McGuire, the Governor, Andrew Cuomo, owns a house in Westchester county.
As one familiar with Manhattan gridlock and a subway system that carries some 5 and 1/2 million riders each weekday, the congestion pricing plan and resultant revenue stream toward transit is welcome. In NYC, among other observations, one notes the thousands of tourists, the many young adults, the parents with little children, and the building boom of high end apartment towers. These vertiginous, pencil-thin structures, while cringeworthy, define serious currency inflows, as does the massive development of the “Hudson Yards.”
I’m pretty sure it’s in the Constitution of this Great(er) and Glorious Nation that driving anywhere, at anytime, at any speed, is a right we fought for in the Civil War.
Just another example of left wingers trying to force REAL Mericans to take public transportation; which we fought the Soviet Union to avoid doing!
Penelope – Maybe Texas is in the “hip pocket” f the people who live in Texas and pay taxes and vote.
This would never happen in Texas. TXDOT and the rest of state government are in the hip pocket of the oil companies and automobile dealers. Hence, the removal of a potential commuter rail route between Katy and Downtown Houston to widen the Katy Freeway (I-10). ??
Ya’ll are being silly. Rich people aren’t going to leave New York because they have to pay a tax on their ginormous mansions. And congestion pricing hasn’t been a big deal in London, Stockholm or Singapore. In London it certainly didn’t stop Russian oligarchs from buying huge mansions in Mayfair.
ROBERT Good post. People need to hear the truth and the truth is what you posted.
The Cuomo father and son, much like Trudeau pere et fils, shows that the first generation has something going and the second generation is worthless. Could add in Edmund Gerald Brown Sr. and Jr. Hate to say it, all six of my own religion and the three younger should have been thrown out.
This will accomplish little other than increase the steady outflow of wealthy residents from New York City to Republican states with much lower tax rates. It’s already happening but this will speed it up. Even AOC’s mother left her NYC condo with the $10,000 annual property tax bill for Florida and a property tax of less than $700. Of course Cuomo doesn’t care because he lives in the governor’s mansion which is paid for by the already oppressed New York taxpayers. It will accelerate the exodus of companies from New York so when the Hudson River tunnels collapse due to Cuomo and Murphy’s refusal to pay New York’s fair share of the project, nobody will care because there won’t be any more need to travel into the city. I see nothing in this proposal that would require the transit riders to pay something more towards their fair share of the costs.
Just came in from driving I-24 from Nashville to suburbia. HOV lane, like God, motherhood and apple pie. This one – I 24, seems well engineered and is hardly Tennessee’s worst problem. Nonetheless I disagree. In a four-lane highway, the purpose of the left lane is for people going long distances with no exit coming up. Also, it’s safest if all four lanes go at about the same speed, a slight gradient increasing as one weaves toward the median. To have people zipping down the left lane at high speed (because of HOV or EV), then cutting over for an exit, is two violations of best traffic engineering practice.
It all goes back to how do we fund our vastly underfunded,worn out and undersized transportation system both roads, buses and trains. Nobody wants to pay for it but we all use it in one form or another. And while Texas may have low gas taxes and income taxes they do have some pretty expensive toll roads so Texans save money on gas and spend it on tolls. I am not advocating congestion pricing but since the Feds are spending money on overseas military actions (in the tune of 4 trillion dollars since 9-11) the states have to figure out how to pay for this themselves.
This sounds similar to the high occupancy / toll lanes we have here in Atlanta and which I’ve also encountered in other cities. (Some people like to call them “Lexus lanes” which makes my nine year old Honda Accord feel good.). Registered car pools and mass transit buses may use the lanes toll free; the rest of us pay a toll that fluctuates based on congestion in the main freeway lanes and traffic volume already in the toll lanes. About the only difference between HOT lanes and what New York is proposing is I can choose to use the HOT lane or not whereas the New York proposal presumably would adjust the tolls on just about everyone entering the city.