NJ officials rail against congestion pricing as feds delay deadline to end the tax
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says that he, along with President Donald Trump, is putting New York officials on notice to comply.
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The federal government has pushed back the deadline to end the MTA’s controversial congestion pricing plan.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says that he, along with President Donald Trump, is putting New York officials on notice to comply. Duffy posted on X, calling New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s refusal to stop congestion pricing “unacceptable.”
“Know that the billions of dollars the federal government sends to New York are not a blank check. Continued non-compliance will not be taken lightly,” Duffy wrote in part.
The announcement from Duffy came just hours after state and local New Jersey officials gathered near the George Washington Bridge to address their concerns about congestion pricing – including gubernatorial candidate Rep. Josh Gottheimer.
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"The harsh reality that congestion tax is punishing hard-working, middle-class families who are just doing everything they can to get by at a time of higher prices…And the fact that New York just turned around and said, ‘We’re gonna whack these hard-working families’ instead of helping them, makes no sense,” Gottheimer said.
The congressman went on to say that congestion pricing is creating more cancer-causing pollution due to traffic being moved toward the George Washington Bridge instead of the tunnels.
The MTA doubled down that congestion pricing is doing what officials planned for it to do. The agency released a statement about the plan.
"Congestion relief works, reducing traffic and shortening commute times. It's even eliminating noise from horn honking in Manhattan. Unfortunately for New Jersey, noise pollution continues from Gridlock Gottheimer, who's in Fort Lee again ranting about bringing back traffic problems,” wrote John McCarthy, MTA chief of policy and external relations.
Congestion pricing went into effect at the beginning of the year.
