The battle for congestion fee exemption is imminent – but the facts and the law are on the side of mass transit.
On Wednesday night, PIX 11 released a clip of a long-range interview with Eric Adams in which the prospective mayor gave his opinion on who should be exempted from congestion prices whenever they are implemented.
“Above all, we should make sure we don’t harm low-income New Yorkers who need to go to Manhattan. For example, if you need to go to Manhattan on a low income for chemotherapy. They don’t do it because it’s a luxury, “Adams told reporter Dan Mannarino. “The aim is to get the vehicles off the road where people use them as a luxury and not as a necessity, especially when it comes to economic challenges.”
The myth of the Working-Steif-Who-Must-Drive-In, passed on directly from Richard Brodsky, David Weprin & de Blasio to our next Mayor https://t.co/vP5ZuxORRE
– Jon Orcutt (@jonorcutt) July 22, 2021
As Adams demonstrates, determining whether or not an individual trip to Manhattan is a “luxury” can get deep into hypothetical territory (“OK, what if you come from Staten Island with 4,000 new-size lollipops to a Midtown orphanage and you are also an Eagle Scout, and you have to visit your blind grandmother in SoHo 30 minutes later? “) So the state legislature wrote the law on the congestion prices with the express requirement to raise 15 billion US dollars in bonds for the MTA, to improve the mass transit, and the toll system must generate at least $ 1 billion a year to achieve this.
“If one group is exempt, it means the rest of the paying people will end up paying more,” said Kate Slevin, senior vice president of state programs and advocacy at the Regional Plan Association, which has long campaigned for congestion prices. “You don’t want to free too many categories of people, because then you end up having fewer people who pay a very high toll. It’s going to be a balancing act. ”
What Adams and other carveout proponents should also know: The law introducing congestion prices already provides for an exception and a discount. The exception applies to “qualifying vehicles”[s] Transportation of a Disabled Person, ”and residents of Manhattan Central Business District where the toll is collected will receive toll tax credits if they earn less than $ 60,000 per year.
As for the myth that there are significant numbers of people who are poor but also rich enough to drive a car and have to drive to Manhattan regularly, the Community Service Society says that it is only 2 percent of the working population The poor in the city would be affected by the congestion prices. If politicians interfering in the congestion pricing debate are really concerned about poor New Yorkers, they would advocate a minimum exemptions system that makes the most money on local transportation, because that’s how poor people mostly die the five districts around.
“We don’t want this program to harm New Yorkers, but the vast majority of New Yorkers don’t go to Manhattan to work. They work elsewhere or use public transport, ”said Slevin. “The goal here should be to invest in the public transport system, because that leads to the broadest possible equity.”
That’s what Eric Adams said a few weeks ago, of course, when New Yorkers were forced to wade in unspeakably lazy muddy water to get on a train after it rained.
This is what happens when the MTA has been making poor spending decisions for decades. We need congestion prices as soon as possible to protect train stations from road flooding, raise entrances and add green infrastructure to absorb the runoff from lightning storms. It can’t be New York. https://t.co/F6A5K4ahQT
– Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) July 8, 2021
If the debate intensifies over the next few months, will New Yorkers see the traffic master Eric Adams or the Eric Adams who collects traffic tickets and has his employees parked all over Borough Hall? Probably both. But the sooner Governor Cuomo, the MTA, and the DOT get the environmental review rolling, the sooner these constructive talks can take place and the sooner New Yorkers can start saving tens of thousands of years and billions of dollars.