By Hank Russell
Two months after a judge upheld a ruling allowing congestion pricing to continue, President Donald Trump’s administration recently filed an appeal in a last-ditch effort to halt the program. The president’s team argued the extra cost to enter Manhattan below 60th Street would financially impact commuters and their families.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman — a Trump appointee — ruled against Trump’s efforts to shut down New York City’s congestion pricing program, calling the president’s actions illegal, “arbitrary and capricious.” He wrote in his decision on March 3 that “The Defendants’ termination” of congestion pricing would be was unlawful, and that any attempt to enforce the February 19 letter … would be unlawful,” according to Newsweek.
The letter Liman referred to was the one written by U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy to Governor Kathy Hochul. As LILP previously reported, Duffy told Hochul that the agency is putting a stop to the pilot program, formally known as the Central Business District Tolling Program, in which certain vehicles are charged tolls upon entry into Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak hours. He said the program hurts working people and small businesses.
“These Green New Scam policies have made federally funded roads inaccessible to commuters without providing a toll-free alternative,” a DOT spokesperson said, according to The New York Post. “The Trump administration will not stop fighting to make everyday life more affordable for American families.”
A Hochul spokesperson told the Post that the appeal is “just a waste of everyone’s time,” adding, “Sean Duffy can keep trying, but traffic will stay down, business will stay up, and the cameras will stay on.”
LILP reached out to the MTA for comment.
“Congestion pricing is working — fewer cars, less pollution, faster commutes,” said John J. McCarthy, MTA’s chief of policy and external relations. “Secretary Duffy has already lost in court and if he wants to see us there again, let’s go.”