Hochul is expected to propose a 40 percent cut in the tolls already approved by the MTA, bringing the $15 base toll for passenger cars down to $9 per day, and the $3.75 late-night rate down to $2.25.
The plan will also reduce the tolling credits — discounts given to drivers who already paid a toll to enter the city by tunnel — by 40 percent, from $5 to $3.
The modified plan is not expected to introduce any new exemptions or exceptions.
Multiple sources told the Daily News that the modified plan will allow for the toll to be ramped back up to the original $15 base toll, likely over the course of several years.
The planned announcement comes as congestion pricing’s supporters find themselves in a race against the clock before the inauguration of President-elect Trump, who vowed to kill the plan while on the campaign trail.
“Gov. Hochul paused congestion pricing because a daily $15 toll was too much for hardworking New Yorkers in this economic climate,” Hochul’s press secretary, Avi Small, said in response to Daily News inquiries. “[Thursday], the governor will announce the path forward to fund mass transit, unclog our streets and improve public health by reducing air pollution.”
Earlier this week, amid reports she was negotiating the modified toll with the feds, Hochul declined to get into details.
“We’ll be making some announcements in the near future on what is going to transpire with respect to congestion pricing,” Hochul told reporters Tuesday.
“These conversations are not new — we have been in communication with the White House, the Federal Highway Administration, [ President] Biden, [his] chief of staff, [and Transportation] Secretary [ Pete] Buttigieg since June to talk about my belief that, when inflation was escalating and New Yorkers were struggling, that $15 was just too much,” she said. “I still believe that, while inflation is starting to come down [and] we’re seeing some progress, $15 is still too much.”
Hochul added that a proposal to “solve the funding for the MTA” would be in place by the end of the year, adding that her plan would “fund the [capital] program, deal with mitigation of environmental impacts, [and] congestion mitigation as well.”
Congestion pricing — which in its final version was a $15-a-day base toll to drive into Midtown and lower Manhattan set to start this past June — was required by law to back the issuance of $15 billion in bonding earmarked for the MTA’s 2020-2024 capital plan. That plan includes projects like the Second Ave. subway expansion, modern subway signaling, and elevators in 23 subway stations.
The toll was set to go into effect on June 30, before Gov. Hochul “indefinitely” paused it on June 5.
Though she had been a major booster of congestion pricing in the runup, she said at the time she feared the toll would bring economic hardship to New Yorkers. Many observers also cited several competitive House races in moderate districts as a potential reason for the pause.
Last week, reports out of SOMOS, the annual New York political conference in Puerto Rico, indicated that Hochul has been meeting with the feds to negotiate the possibility of a “soft start” to congestion tolling, easing motorists in with a lower initial toll.
Several sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed those ongoing conversations to the Daily News, saying Hochul had been floating an initial $9-a-day toll, which would ramp up over an unknown period of time before reaching $15 a day.
Hochul’s expected announcement Thursday will kick off a process that the toll’s advocates hope can be completed before Trump takes over the federal Department of Transportation — where top officials will need to sign off on the plan before it can begin.
The MTA’s board — which voted to approve a $15 base toll in March — will vote on the governor’s modified plan at its scheduled meeting next Wednesday, sources tell The News.
But because Hochul’s June 5 pause came 39 days into a 60-day public education period mandated by the state, even if the board approves her $9 plan, the MTA can’t legally flip the switch to turn on tolling for at least another 21 days.
And because the plan has changed, it is expected to need a final signoff by regulators at the Federal Highway Administration, to ensure it is still in line with the environmental assessment green-lit by the feds in May.
Hochul’s proposed toll is likely set to $9, sources told The News, because that was the lowest toll studied in the federally approved assessment — and the hope is such a toll would not trigger a new and lengthy federal approval process.
New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a longtime foe of the tolling plan, said in a statement that he’d fight it even at the lower rate — calling the toll a “tax” on residents of the Garden State who commute in the city
Asked about the modified plan on WPIX after news broke Wednesday night, Mayor Adams said he “stand[s] with the governor.”
“She heard the residents who stated that $15 is far too much, but she also knew that we have a real capital problem,” he said. “This is how we can actually pay for the capital problems that we have.”
The MTA had been hoping to get $1 billion a year in revenue from a $15-a-day toll. It wasn’t immediately clear how a lower toll would impact that projected revenue.
It was also not clear Wednesday exactly when Hochul hoped the MTA could begin collecting the toll, but sources said the goal is to enact the congestion pricing plan — not simply get it approved — before Trump takes office.
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