Here’s why no one escapes NYC’s controversial congestion toll — not even locals without cars

There’s no escaping the MTA’s new $15 congestion toll to enter Midtown — even for local residents who don’t drive a car.

A Brooklyn-based air-conditioning and ventilation service firm is already alerting customers below 60th Street in Manhattan that beginning June 30, it will impose a $15 surcharge for all work orders to compensate for the toll, which kicks in that day.

“Note: Starting June 30 all NYC calls below 60th Street will be charged a $15 surcharge for NYC congestion fee,” says Mechanical East, a firm that installs and cleans heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units, in a bill sent to a Manhattan customer after cleaning AC units.

Daniel Flancraich, vice president of Mechanical East, told The Post, “This announcement to my clients is self explanatory.”

Opponents of the toll have been warning for months that companies will pass along its cost to customers while making deliveries of goods and performing service calls.

Car drivers will be charged a $15 toll. Large Trucks will be charged between $24 and $36 per trip, depending on their size.

“Hold onto your wallets, because the price of everything is about to go up even more in New York, especially within the congestion pricing tax zone,” said Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free spokesman Joshua Bienstock, whose group got a copy of Mechanical East’s bill from a customer.

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Bienstock said companies may exploit the toll.

They will be paying the toll when entering Midtown but could be performing several jobs once there for the day — yet charge numerous customers the same fee.

“Service and delivery businesses are now realizing that they can add a congestion tax surcharge to every stop they make below 60th Street, which any thinking person could have foreseen,” Bienstock told The Post.

“But not the MTA. All they care about is squeezing more money out of hardworking New Yorkers; they could care less about the inflationary nature of their tax,” the rep said.

Congestion pricing is being implemented because of a state law designed to curb congestion and pollution in Midtown while generating revenue to boost mass transit.

The law was championed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Democrat-controlled legislature in 2019 and is backed by current Gov. Kathy Hochul .

“It’s hard to blame delivery and service companies for identifying this new money-maker, courtesy of Governor Hochul and the dolts at the MTA,”  Bienstock said.

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“How can a customer know how many stops a delivery or service vehicle is making in the zone? [Businesses] will profit from this fiasco, as will Uber and Lyft, while everyday citizens are caught holding the bill as usual. This is Governor Hochul’s New York.”

Kathryn Freed, who lives in a co-op building on the FDR Drive in Manhattan and is a plaintiff in a lawsuit aimed at blocking the toll, said apartment dwellers — including those on fixed incomes in public housing — will particularly feel the pinch of the pass-along-toll cost.

“There is no rail freight in Manhattan,” Freed said. “Officials didn’t look at the economic impact of the congestion toll.”

Frank Arroyo, the owner of Frank’s Bike Shop on Grand Street, said he already pays $90 to $105 for bike delivery services — and the congestion toll will just be piled on top of it.

“It’s going to increase the delivery costs. The bikes are all warehoused outside the zone,” said Arroyo, 79, who has been in business for 48 years.

He said the congestion toll will also discourage longtime customers who moved elsewhere from coming back to the shop.

Queens Chamber of Commerce President Tom Grech said such issues should not come as a surprise.

“You can’t do service deliveries on the bus and subway,” Grech said.

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The MTA said the new tolling will generate $1 billion annually to pay for new subway trains, signal overhauls, a new expansion of the Second Avenue subway into East Harlem and other major projects, while reducing Midtown congestion.

The MTA claimed Sunday the congestion toll will be a money-saver.

“The Partnership for NYC estimates businesses are losing billions of dollars each year on long commute times and stalled deliveries of goods and services in the Central Business District because of gridlocked traffic. How they pass savings from congestion relief on to customers is up to them,” said John McCarthy, the MTA’s chief of policy and external relations.

Tolls will be substantially lower during off-peaks hours — $3.75 for cars.

Critics argue the toll will only divert traffic and pollution elsewhere, pick motorists and businesses’ wallets and turn over their dollars over to a much-maligned agency with a documented record of massive overspending on capital projects compared to other large transit systems across the globe, while fare beating is rampant.

A recent poll found New York voters across the board overwhelmingly oppose the new congestion toll.

Legal challenges to the toll have been filed by Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella and the United Federation of Teachers, lower Manhattan residents such as Freed and small businesses, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and truckers .

Barring court intervention, the MTA plans to start collecting the toll June 30.

Hochul’s office did not respond to a Post request for comment.

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