Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday refused to disclose her recent conversations with President Trump on the fate of New York City’s congestion pricing program following reports on Thursday that he may scuttle the fairly new tolling system.
Hochul, during an unrelated Jan. 31 Manhattan news conference, said she would not reveal details of her two phone conversations with Trump this week, even as the New York Times reported that he is considering pulling a key approval for congestion pricing. The program charges drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street a $9 base toll — with the goal of reducing traffic and generating much-needed funds to update the city’s aging transit system.
“I’m not going to disclose the contents of the conversations I’ve had with the president,” Hochul said.
The revenue generated by congestion pricing will be used by the MTA to secure $15 billion in bonds that can then be used to update the city’s decaying public transportation system. The funding will go toward major infrastructure projects like modernizing the decades-old signal systems used on several subway lines and making many more train stations accessible to those with disabilities.
Hochul is reportedly due to speak to Trump once again, as well as Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (Brooklyn), about the topic on Friday. She is also set to speak to the president about it a fourth time next week.
The governor cited anecdotal evidence that congestion pricing, which took effect on Jan. 5, has significantly shortened many people’s commutes by reducing traffic in Manhattan. Yet she also declined to say whether she sung the program’s praises in her conversation with the president.
“I’m aware of the change in patterns that resulted in, certainly for many people’s commutes, less time on the road,” Hochul said. “I cannot say that he knows about those stories, but there will certainly be more information as the MTA collects data.”
However, according to a report from the New York Post citing anonymous sources, Hochul did go to bat for keeping the program in place during a call with Trump on Thursday morning.
Trump previously vowed to halt congestion pricing as soon as he assumed office earlier this month. New York’s Republican Congressional delegation has also repeatedly urged Trump to recind the program’s federal approval.
“[Trump] and the people around him have said they are not supporting this,” she said. “Well, my job is to advocate on behalf of New York State and our policies with every tool that I have…I don’t know what the outcome will be, all I know is that I’ll do my best to fight.”
The govenror has had a complicated relationship with congestion pricing. She abruptly paused the program last June, just weeks before it was set to start, reportedly because she did not want it to interfere with several vital House races in the city’s suburbs.
But she restarted it, reducing the base toll from $15 to $9, after Trump was elected in November.
For his part, MTA CEO and Chair Janno Lieber said, during a Citizens Budget Commission breakest in Manhattan on Friday, that ending congestion pricing could have far-reaching consequences.
Specifically, Lieber argued that halting the scheme could hurt other localities that have used a similar model of securing bonds through toll revenues.
“The idea that the federal government would summarily rescind agreements with the states and localities, that has national implications,” Lieber said. “We have all these toll roads in Texas and Florida and Ohio that have been approved, and they bonded those revenues. If all of a sudden, those agreements could be rescinded on a dime, bondholders are going to charge a lot more. It has a lot of consequences nationally.”
