Congestion pricing replacement plan could come by year's end, Hochul says

NEW YORK — A replacement plan for the paused congestion pricing program will be announced by the end of the year, likely after Election Day.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, in an interview with POLITICO on Monday, said she wants to roll out a plan in the coming months in order to get state lawmakers on board.

“We will be announcing this by the end of the year because the Legislature has to act on it,” she said, speaking from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “It’s more likely it will be announced by the end of the year, early next year as we get the Legislature on board.”

Hochul in June announced an “indefinite pause” to the unpopular congestion pricing toll program, which would have charged drivers $15 when entering Manhattan below 60th Street.

Money from the tolls would have been leveraged to borrow $15 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital plan to fund infrastructure upgrades on New York City's rundown mass transit system.

Polls have shown congestion pricing to be controversial in New York . But Hochul took heat for her last-minute decision from business leaders and Democrats who had supported the program as a way to pay for infrastructure projects and reduce emissions.

Hochul has insisted congestion pricing should be paused because of the financial burden placed on working New Yorkers. But the tolls were also shelved months before the November elections — including a half-dozen battleground House races in New York that could determine control of the closely divided chamber.

The governor on Monday said the decision to delay the toll program’s implementation was not made with the political calendar in mind — contradicting an assertion made by several people with knowledge of the matter.

“It’s not related to elections,” she said. “We’re studying other options.”

But Republicans have scoffed at the timing of the delay, as well as the introduction of a new revenue plan after the elections.

"It’s the same political two-step that Albany and this governor plays all the time," Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro, who is facing a tough challenge, said in an interview.

The New York Post reported Sunday that Hochul was weighing a potential compromise that would exempt municipal workers and reduce the tolls. Two people on Monday to POLITICO confirmed the idea has been floated, but no broader progress on an alternative revenue plan has been made this summer.

Hochul’s fellow Democrats in the state Legislature in June rejected last-minute replacement revenue plans for congestion pricing, including a $1 billion bond proposal and an increase in the payroll mobility tax.