NEW YORK — The federal government says March 21 will mark the end of Manhattan’s congestion pricing program, but New York State officials are indicating they expect tolling to continue.
A letter from Federal Highway Administration executive director Gloria Shepherd sent on Feb. 20 — the day after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the Department of Transportation would rescind its approval of the tolling — set the termination date.
But news site NY1 reports that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a Metropolitan Transportation Authority board meeting Wednesday, Feb. 26, that the state will display “orderly resistance” other than the “orderly cessation” called for by Duffy [see “New York MTA sues …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 19, 2025]. And MTA CEO Janno Lieber said the agency would not turn off the devices that read license plates to assess the toll.
“We have an approval that is valid and in effect,” Lieber said, “and we’re not turning them off absent a court order.” The MTA has sued to block the federal action.
President Donald Trump had vowed to kill congestion pricing during his campaign, and Duffy said the program was a “slap in the face” to working-class people and small businesses in announcing the intention to rescind permission granted under the Biden Administration. The MTA — which will use the tolling funds for capital projects — has cited a 7.5% reduction in traffic within the tolling zone since the start of the program.
A further wrinkle. Hackers are now sending “overdue” texts claiming that you owe electronic tolls. Oklahoma was hacked for sure, and we also got one from ME. Brave New World.
It is fun to read the local rags about the guv’s staunch resistance; only the WSJ does contortions. A lotta smoke & fury until court. Meantime mid-town much less crowded and more room for the hordes of tourists gawking at a chintzy tower. A favorite church is across 5th ave and no crowds therein.
So true Mr. Thompson, you beat me to the same observation. States should make their own rulings & decision according to the R’s until it’s contrary to their opinions then it’s illegal!
Perhaps a misnomer to characterize trump as “working” when approx. a third of his time is cheating at golf.
And BTW eggs were $9 a doz. this am.
For someone who said he’s for states making their own rules the orange one is a typical Republican hypocrite. This man is an embarrassment to our country. Especially with his snuggling up to his buddy Putin. Disgusting and disgraceful!
CHRIS — I’m a Republican, 100%. I agree with your post.
Don’t know where you are but eggs are $6.05 here. Anyway, the egg problem is due to the Bird flue and has nothing to do with politics.
Steve if I remember correctly, and I do Biden got blamed for the price of eggs by republicans. So get used to trump getting blamed for anything and everything. Even if it’s totally ridiculous. It makes me feel better and that’s good enough for me.
Cat food prices are going up because they have found avian flu in it from the chicken byproducts it contains. Not Biden or orange one’s faults, its the super-pipe-lining of the supply chain to keep prices down.
The same mentality that pushes hedge funds to PSR railroads.
Eggs are still $3 a dozen CDN in Canada because they haven’t merged the supply chain so intensely as the US has.
For all the trump and duffy bluster, nothing will change until court rulings. In the meantime tolls to the tune of almost 50 mil. will be collected monthly.
I’ve heard no comments about the billing system progress in charging those without EZ Pass by reading license plates and mailing a $9.00 bill. Do they get good plate pictures? Do states actually respond with names and addresses of their citizens from their files? Do people billed actually pay? What percentage? How much does such a payment fully cost New York to collect? And a car entering daily with no pass would get about 22 bills a month. Lots of expensive paper, I would think.
don’t pay and loose your car license plate.
@alan jones: Driving without a license plate is 100% illegal in every state. They’re cracking down on offenders in my state (Missouri) who drive without them, or with just temporary tags that are WAY out of date. (worst I’ve seen was a May 2013 temp tag last year) And I guarantee the fines will be higher than $9.00!
Not all state DMV’s share plate owner information freely.
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) is currently in a squabble with the Pennsylvania DMV about plate information sharing on toll scofflaws. PennDMV refused to disclose unless ISTHA paid them for each request. Seems Federal Law says a state cant file suit against another state unless the damages exceed $200k. So ISTHA simply aggregated enough bogus Pennsylvania plates until the missed tolls reached the required amount to file suit.
Another issue to plate detection in the above case was that PennDMV attempted to follow up on the toll cheats and 90% reported that their plates were stolen. No proof required, just a check box on the form sent.
A NYC problem is people buying vanity or fake plates for their cars for use to drive downtown. One woman has been getting tens of thousands of dollars worth of fines because her plate was the same as a vanity plate sold on Amazon. She dropped her registration, but had to hire a lawyer to defend herself from the authorities because they destroyed her credit by sending them to collections when she tried to contest them.
I once heard (but I don’t know if it’s true) that there’s a transponder in liscense plates. If that’s true, obscuring the plate with mud or road salt wouldn’t work.
Interestingly the convicted felon is not whining about Florida enacting congestion pricing on Intrastate 4 tolls.
Only in the defined Express Lanes. You can still ride toll free through Orlando if you so choose.
Should be a local decision. Doesn’t matter what my own opinion is. I vote in Wisconsin. Donald Trump votes in Florida and works in Washington, D.C.
The congestion fee ws legally and legitimately authorized by the New York State legislature. So it should stand.
@Charles, What about Federally funded roads that were previously free?
Here in Washington, Sound Transit’s funding authority comes from the state, and on two occasions, opponents have asked voters outside the district to, through initiative process, to repeal one of the taxes funding construction. The MVET, based on depreciated value. First attempt was thrown out due to the tax being pledged to repay bonds. The second time, it was so poorly written. Still, it had voters in most of the other 36 counties in this state vote for the repeal measure. The second one, I agreed with one part, the author said use the Kelly Blue Book for the depreciation schedule. Problem is, same measure outlawed future uses of the MVET. The measure violated a provision of the State Constitution that forbids legislation from covering more than one subject. The author claimed it didn’t, all provisions were about limiting taxes. That measure was in 2019, meanwhile, projects funded by ST3, are in construction.
John who cares if the roads or highways were previously free. Exactly what deference does that make. And by the way. Nothing is free. I’d think someone who is against taxpayer funded rail transit would know that!
Because there are guidelines with FHWA that govern the tolling of federally funded highways. It’s the reason a state just can’t declare a existing free highway a toll road. Right now a lot of states want to place tolls on formerly free highways to cover their state deficits. You can’t, that is why Biden/Pete pushed the waiver through and also why Trump is rescinding it.
Hopefully that helps.
What about hindering or otherwise interfering with Interstate Commerce?