By Hank Russell
Nassau County Executive and GOP candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman announced that, as governor, he will eliminate congestion pricing on his first day on the job. He said the program has unfairly burdened workers, families and business owners.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, the Central Business District Tolling Program went into effect on January 5, 2025. Drivers who drive below 60th Street in Manhattan are required to pay a $9 congestion pricing toll. The MTA said congestion pricing will greatly reduce gridlock and result in cleaner air and improved transit.
The program was also the subject of lawsuits filed by the Trump administration. LILP also reported that a state judge ruled against the federal government, telling them they could not withhold federal funding if the state implements the program.
LILP also reported that Governor Kathy Hochul held a press conference earlier this month touting the tolling program’s success. Additionally, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) issued a report showing that $468 million was raised between January 5, 2025 and October 31, 2025; the MTA said they were on track to hit $500 million by the end of the year.
However, Blakeman said motorists can be charged up to $27 a day just to drive into Manhattan and that lies with Hochul. “Kathy Hochul loves to talk about affordability,” Blakeman said. “But congestion pricing is a tax hike she imposed that makes New York less affordable for the people who work the hardest and have the least flexibility. It punishes the people who keep New York running: police officers driving into work, nurses and healthcare workers traveling for long shifts, small business owners making deliveries, and families going into the city for medical treatment.”
That is why, he said, he will get rid of congestion pricing in his first day of office as governor.
“We can fix traffic, support mass transit, and protect the environment without nickel-and-diming working people and punishing the communities that can least afford it. New Yorkers deserve leadership that puts them first — not another Albany cash grab,” he said.
In response, New York State Democratic Party Spokesperson Addison Dick said Blakeman has supported President Donald Trump’s agenda, including the implementation of tariffs, which have driven up costs for New Yorkers.
“Bruce Blakeman is hard at work helping Donald Trump make life more expensive for New York families, cheerleading his tariff tax hikes that jack up prices and kill jobs,” Dick said. “While Blakeman rolls over for Trump’s cost-raising agenda, Governor Hochul is delivering on her affordability agenda by putting money back in New Yorkers’ pockets with middle-class tax cuts, inflation refund checks, and universal free school meals.”
Blakeman also referenced the MTA’s own environmental assessment, which acknowledges the policy will have serious negative consequences in many communities. According to the MTA’s assessment, traffic is expected to increase in areas surrounding the toll zone as drivers divert routes, which pollutes communities that already suffer from higher asthma rates and long-standing air quality problems.
“The MTA admits congestion pricing will worsen traffic and pollution in certain neighborhoods — including parts of the South Bronx, one of the poorest communities in our state,” Blakeman said. “That’s not environmental justice. That’s environmental hypocrisy.”
LILP also reached out to the MTA. The agency had no comment.
Blakeman said congestion pricing won’t just stop at Manhattan. “First, it’s Lower Manhattan. Then Upper Manhattan. Then Brooklyn. Then Queens. Then the Bronx. Staten Island. Buffalo. Rochester,” Blakeman said. “Albany never meets a tax it doesn’t want to hike.”