Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday hailed Gov. Kathy Hochul for resurrecting the town’s hated congestion pricing plan — and insisted the Massive Apple is secure from potential blowback by President-elect Donald Trump.
“Whenever you’re a pacesetter, you make powerful choices,” Adams mentioned of Hochul’s revival of the wildly unpopular new commuter tax — which Trump has already vowed to “terminate” in his first week within the White Home.
Underneath the plan, which the Democratic governor paused earlier than the November election — then introduced it was again on the desk barely per week afterward — vehicles coming into Manhattan under sixtieth Avenue will likely be charged a $9 toll beginning subsequent yr.
The toll will soar to $12 by 2028 and spike to the initially deliberate $15 after 2031.
Trump has additionally maligned the plan by calling it a “enterprise killer.”
The Republican New Yorker and Hochul have been sharply at odds about numerous points through the years.
Nonetheless, the pair had a heat telephone name after Trump received the Nov. 5 election over Dem Vice President Kamala Harris.
Within the telephone chat, the pols touched on the town’s deteriorating transit infrastructure, and Trump expressed curiosity on working along with Hochul on fixing up Penn Station and the subways in accordance with sources.
He has publicly insisted he has the utmost respect for the Democrat.
Hochul has the ability to pardon Trump over his Could conviction on 34 counts of falsifying enterprise data to hide reimbursement of 2016 hush-money funds.
Regardless of the obtrusive disconnect between Hochul and Trump on congestion pricing, Adams claimed Tuesday that there received’t be a repeat of the type of tensions and undermining that plagued the president-elect’s first administration and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“We weren’t speaking earlier than. We have been warring and never working collectively,” Adams mentioned.
“Once I mentioned, ‘Let’s flip down the temperature, and let’s work collectively for the town of New York,’ abruptly we obtained a distinct power.”
Hochul’s camp, requested by The Put up whether or not the governor fears she’ll obtain any retribution from Trump over her choice to push forward with congestion pricing, declined remark.
A Hochul rep, Avi Small, as a substitute referred The Put up to the governor’s feedback throughout a Crain’s New York Enterprise and Partnership for NYC Hearth chat Tuesday morning.
“I’m an elected official. I’ve labored with folks throughout the aisle,” she mentioned when requested about her telephone name with Trump.
Hochul mentioned she mentioned the “eyesore” that Penn station is and confirmed Trump agreed these “infrastructure tasks can’t be ignored.”
Neither Trump’s nor Cuomo’s camp responded to Put up requests for remark Tuesday.
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