Senate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries Praises Congestion Pricing Pause

Rep. Jeffries described Gov. Hochul’s decision as a “reasonable thing to do at this moment” during a news conference on August 5

Senate Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries praised the decision of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pause a controversial congestion pricing program even though it reportedly cost the Manhattan Transit Authority $15 billion.

According to Gothamist, Jeffries described Gov. Hochul’s decision as a “reasonable thing to do at this moment” during a news conference on Aug. 5, which marked the groundbreaking of a $57 million project that will add elevators to the city’s Clausson Avenue station.

According to Jefferies, “I think that Gov. Hochul was obvious that she had cost-of-living concerns regarding congestion pricing that should be evaluated. I stayed neutral throughout the entire process, but I’ve supported the pause as a reasonable thing to do at this moment.”

Jeffries supported the pause following Hochul’s announcement on June 5. His office quickly approved a “temporary pause of limited duration to understand better the financial impact [of congestion pricing] on working-class New Yorkers.”

Although the program was touted by Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for Riders Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for better transit in New York, Hochul indicated that her decision to pause congestion pricing came from talking to everyday New Yorkers.

Although the cost of congestion pricing for the everyday driver would have increased the daily fee to enter a designated congestion zone in Manhattan to $15, transit advocates like Riders Alliance accused Gov. Hochul of orchestrating a political move.

Gov. Hochul and Rep. Jeffries, however, have denied such actions. According to Jeffries, “We did not discuss the impact adversely on the House of Representatives in connection with congestion pricing.”

According to The New York Times, congestion pricing has proven effective at reducing pollution, although it was no less controversial when first instituted in London. When London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan decided to expand the city’s congestion pricing program in August 2023, he was met with protests and criticism from his own party and the opposition. Still, he eventually won the election comfortably despite his plans for congestion pricing.

However, the data released on July 24 showed that most London drivers had already met the threshold for avoiding the $16 fee. However, it still made more than $130 million for the City of London, and it is projected that by 2026, the city will no longer be collecting fees because all cars will comply.

Hochul, meanwhile, faces two lawsuits from environmental groups, including one from the Sierra Club, the aforementioned Riders Alliance, and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, which alleges that Hochul’s blockage of the program constitutes a violation of the New York State right to clean air and water promised to its citizens via the state Constitution.

According to Dror Ladin, a lawyer for Earthjustice’s northeast regional office and lead attorney on the group’s lawsuit against Hochul, “The governor just took it away and said, ‘We’re not going to do that. That seems to be a pretty clear violation. Governor Hochul’s decision to block congestion pricing is totally inconsistent with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act,” Ladin told the Sierra Club.

“It specifically gets us further away from our emissions goals.”