Name ‘em the Poor Authority.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is fearful the brand new $9 congestion toll to enter Midtown Manhattan will really scale back site visitors — and income — at Hudson River bridge and tunnel crossings.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — which is overseen by appointees of Murphy and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — generates greater than $2 billion in revenues from its tolls, which embody the Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel and George Washington Bridge.
“As you’re conscious, New Jersey has important considerations relating to New York and the Metropolitan Authority’s congestion pricing program,” Murphy mentioned within the letter to the authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole.
“Please permit this letter to function a proper request for statistical info associated to the impression of New York’s congestion pricing scheme on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.”
Murphy is asking for complete bridge and tunnel crossings and the overall variety of passenger autos for the month of January and for each month going ahead, in addition to for site visitors and toll information for 2024 and 2023 as a comparability “so we might assess the continued impacts on congestion pricing.”
The letter comes after the rollout of the Hochul-backed $9 congestion toll for drivers coming into Manhattan south of sixtieth Avenue.
Drivers from Jersey who cross the Holland or Lincoln now must pay the tunnel tolls in addition to the congestion toll — with a $3 low cost for the double cost.
The authority depends by itself toll revenues to keep up its crossings and help different key applications, such because the PATH trains for New Jersey commuters to get into Manhattan and the deliberate Midtown Bus Terminal.
The authority additionally has tolls on the roadways that join the Backyard State to New York through Staten Island — the Bayonne Bridge, Goethals Bridge and Outerbridge Crossing.
A PA spokesman mentioned it would present Murphy’s workplace with the site visitors and toll information going ahead.
“Tolls fund the important interstate transportation infrastructure that retains our area shifting,” PA spokesman Seth Stein mentioned.
“These revenues permit us to make once-in-a-generation capital investments which can be remodeling key belongings, together with a high to backside rehab of the George Washington Bridge, full substitute of the Midtown Bus Terminal, and an overhaul of monitor, indicators and stations within the PATH system.”
Murphy raises a “truthful level” relating to site visitors and toll income on the PA, mentioned Danny Pearlstein of the Riders Alliance, a mass transit advocate who backs the congestion toll.
However he expects any decline in PA income could be negligible and that the discount in site visitors and congestion so far has been a great factor.
“Murphy is viewing this problem from a helicopter and never seeing what’s occurring on the bottom,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, Hochul mentioned Wednesday the congestion toll so far has been successful in lowering congestion and rushing up site visitors in Midtown.
Whereas “not declaring mission achieved,” she mentioned throughout a NY1 interview that “it’s working” as supposed.
After Murphy’s request, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) despatched a letter to President Trump Thursday — co-signed by two dozen different elected officers — urging him to have the federal authorities reverse its approval and kill the congestion toll.
Trump opposes the toll.
Among the many signatories was Staten Island District Legal professional Michael McMahon and Borough President Vito Fossella.
