The Backyard State continues to be smarting over congestion pricing.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy took a swipe at Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York Tuesday for socking motorists with the brand new $9 charge to enter Manhattan south of sixtieth Road.
“Beneath our administration, New Jersey has launched into a historic enterprise to rebuild and reimagine our whole transportation system. We have now created new, devoted funding streams to help the way forward for NJ TRANSIT,” Murphy mentioned throughout his annual coverage tackle.
“And by the way in which, we didn’t mooch off our neighbors to fulfill our fiscal wants — and now we have not stopped preventing for one second to defend our commuters going out and in of New York,” he mentioned, referring to congestion pricing.
A federal choose in Newark rejected Murphy and the state’s bid simply earlier than the first-in-the-nation congestion toll went into impact Jan. 5.
However Murphy, in his ultimate “State of the State” speech, mentioned fights within the authorized and political arenas are usually not over.
“Keep tuned,” he teased.
The controversy over the toll has turn into fodder within the Jersey gubernatorial race this yr to switch term-limited Murphy.
One candidate, Jersey Metropolis Mayor Steven Fulop, steered a retaliatory congestion charge for motorists who cross from New York into the Backyard State.
“There’s loads of crossings between Staten Island, New York, Bergen County, Hudson County into New Jersey,” Fulop instructed Fox 5 NY.
“There’s loads of alternatives to have the identical form of influence charge that New York is placing on New Jersey.”
Hochul touted the toll — which will likely be used to fund the MTA’s large capital building program — throughout her personal coverage booklet launched Tuesday.
“Beneath Governor Hochul’s management the MTA will advance plenty of transformative tasks, together with the Second Ave Subway Section 2 extension to East Harlem, fashionable sign methods on segments of the A/C and B/D/F/M strains for over 1.5 million each day riders, accessibility enhancements at greater than 20 stations, and a whole bunch of recent electrical buses,” the governor’s booklet said.
“These and different investments are being funded by New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program, which went into impact on January fifth following the Governor’s profitable effort to decrease the toll by 40 p.c, and which can generate $15 billion in mass transportation funding,” her coverage paper mentioned.
Hochul delayed the toll in June when it was pegged at $15, solely to ram by means of a $9 tax after the November elections.
She claims congestion pricing will curb the variety of autos coming into Manhattan by 10%.
Transit advocates who backed congestion pricing be aware that New York motorists pay tolls to journey alongside highways on the west facet of the Hudson — such because the the New Jersey Turnpike and Backyard State Parkway.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber has known as Jersey toll opponents hypocrites.
Congestion pricing was set in movement by a 2019 legislation authorized by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature — although Cuomo now says he opposes the $9 toll as doubtlessly inflicting “extra hurt than good.”
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