MTA’s Proposed Congestion Pricing Toll Structure Unacceptable To Rockland
The MTA has a golden opportunity to balance what has been an unfair value gap which I stressed in meetings with MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, and in a letter to the MTA Board in opposition to the Traffic Mobility Review Board Congestion Pricing recommendations. But Wednesday, the MTA Board still voted to initiate the process to advance the MTA’s Central Business District congestion pricing tolling structure proposal.
This “rate making process” will include a public review process and a public comment period with public hearings, likely to be held in February. After the hearings and with the closure of the public comment period, the MTA Board will review the public input and schedule a vote in the Spring on whether to authorize the adoption of the tolls. It is expected that the tolls could take effect as soon as late Spring 2024.
Rockland County residents face the highest level of transit inequity in the MTA region including a transit desert that forces more than 60% of our residents to drive into the city because they have no other way to get there.
It is for that reason my administration has continuously fought for Rockland residents to be exempt from congestion pricing tolls based on our $40 million value gap with the MTA, which no other member of the MTA has. Or at minimum, be credited for the George Washington Bridge crossing tolls with a discounted rate for entering the congestion pricing zone.
Despite this, the Traffic Mobility Review Board (TMRB) recommended a $15 CBD Base car toll with a $5 credit against the daytime CBD toll for Lincoln, Holland, Queens-Midtown, and Hugh Carey tunnels, for commuters who already have vast transit options and the most affordable transit fares, but none for GWB; once again, burdening Rockland commuters –who are furthest from the CBD – and have the highest transit fares.
Let’s not forget the continuous congestion pricing conversation has only emphasized improving transit options in New York City, with little regard for the tax-paying members of the MTA outside the city. The MTA has no funding set aside or any projects planned whatsoever to expand or improve transit availability from Rockland County in conjunction with its Congestion Pricing program. Rockland County will receive no direct benefit from the billions of dollars the CBDTP toll will collect – all of which will be dedicated to MTA’s Capital Program that contains zero funding to expand or improve transit from Rockland County. The MTA’s CBDTP credit/discount analysis process to date has also been blatantly exclusionary of the West of Hudson suburban members of the MTA, who already pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the MTA for the worst quality and least amount of transit service.
The proposed CBD Toll Structure is an insult to Rockland residents including cops, firefighters, and others who will pay more simply for using their own vehicle due to the inadequacies of MTA’s current transit service from Rockland County. The proposed Congestion pricing tolls are an insult to Rockland County families who are, and have been, struggling financially with high gas prices and record-breaking inflation.
Rockland County residents have been left out of the equity equation during the congestion pricing conversation and we need to ensure that the MTA Board looks at this more closely as the toll setting process continues. I invite Rockland County residents to add your voices to the public input process for the MTA’s Central Business District Tolling Program proposal. Tell MTA that Rockland County residents know we will receive no benefit from the revenue these tolls will generate and we need to be exempt from the congestion pricing toll.
You can monitor the process schedule through the project website (https://new.mta.info/project/
