Mayor Eric Adams called on the MTA to expand the exemptions to its controversial plan to charge Big Apple drivers $15 to enter Manhattan’s core — as the costly proposal was unveiled Thursday.
The agency’s Traffic Mobility Review Board released the details of its congestion pricing plan, slated to start in May 2023 — and it includes very few exclusions.
Officials say the decision was necessary to avoid having to up the toll to as much as $23, however, Hizonner was quick to hit back.
“I think the $15 proposal is the beginning of the conversation,” Adams said at a Thursday morning press conference.
“Now it’s time to hear from the community to deliberate and to make the determination of who is going to be exempt who’s not going to be exempt.”
The mayor insisted there should be exemptions for medical treatment, for example.
“I think that anyone that’s driving into the city for luxury purposes or convenience, they need to pay whatever the price is,” he said.
“Those who are there for necessities such as a medical treatment that is mandatory by a certain professional, we need to take that into account.”
The toll board, headed by former city Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod, said the panel had considered such a proposal but nixed it because it would be extremely difficult to implement and health insurance would cover the cost.
“I can only say that what we tried to do was recognize the public benefits from this program — and they are significant — and they are things that people care about: Pollution, congestion, a high-quality transit system,” Weisbrod told reporters as he defended the proposal during the rollout at MTA headquarters.
Late Thursday, after Weisbrod’s press conference, City Hall put out a statement that demanded additional exemptions or discounts, including for city-owned cars, electric trucks and “offering credits so that drivers aren’t incentivized to lengthen their trips.”
Under the congestion pricing plan, passenger car drivers entering Manhattan south of 60th Street during daytime hours would be charged $15, while motorcyclists would be charged $7.50.
Daytime hours would be between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the weekends and drivers would only be charged once per day.
Outside those peak hours, the toll would be $3.75.
The fee for small trucks would be $24 while large trucks would be charged $36 during daytime hours. At night, those tolls would be discounted to $6 and $9, respectively, to move traffic-jamming deliveries out of commuting hours.
Cabs and other vehicles for hire, including Uber and Lyft, would be exempted from the daily charge, however, riders would have a fee attached to their receipt — set at $1.25 for taxis and $2.50 for other vehicles for hire.
Meanwhile, commuters coming in via the East River or Hudson River tunnels would get a $5 discount against the daytime price.
Drivers traveling on the FDR Drive and West Side Highway would not be charged a toll.
There would also be no crossing credit for drivers coming over the George Washington Bridge or for motorists using the Verrazano to enter Manhattan from Staten Island via Brooklyn.
Residents who live in the congestion zone and make less than $60,000 annually will be able to rebate their toll bill against their income tax.
The pricing plan is expected to generate $1 billion annually to help the MTA finance up to $15 billion in repairs, improvements and expansion projects across its network of subways, railroads and buses.
That means, Weisbrod argued, that any new exemption would need to be offset by charging a higher base toll.
“It does all hang together, if you change one piece of it, it affects other things,” Weisbrod warned.
The MTA says it expects to begin charging the toll as soon as May. The rollout will be followed by a series of public hearings and then a vote by the MTA’s board, which is controlled by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hochul said she supported the $15 charge when asked at a separate event in Manhattan on Thursday.
Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy used the news to reiterate his opposition to the proposal and to bolster his lawsuit challenging the federal environmental approvals that allowed the MTA to proceed with the initiative.
“As a conceptual matter, I support congestion pricing, as long as it is structured in a way that is fair to all sides. This plan is neither fair nor equitable,” he said in a statement.
MTA officials have hit back, saying that the lawsuit means the agency cannot issue bonds to finance major improvements — including a badly needed overhaul and upgrade of the decrepit decades-old train signaling system used by the A and C lines in Brooklyn.
Data released by the Traffic Mobility Review Board shows that 85% of 1.5 million people commuting into Manhattan south of 60th Street already take the subway, the PATH, the three commuter railroads or a bus.
