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The Garden State is still 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 new $9 fee to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.
“Under our administration, New Jersey has embarked on a historic undertaking to rebuild and reimagine our entire transportation system. We have created new, dedicated funding streams to support the future of NJ TRANSIT,” Murphy said during his annual policy address.
“And by the way, we didn’t mooch off our neighbors to meet our fiscal needs — and we have not stopped fighting for one second to defend our commuters going in and out of New York,” he said, referring to congestion pricing.
A federal judge in Newark rejected Murphy and the state’s bid just before the first-in-the-nation congestion toll went into effect Jan. 5.
But Murphy, in his final “State of the State” speech, said fights in the legal and political arenas are not over.
“Stay tuned,” he teased.
The controversy over the toll has become fodder in the Jersey gubernatorial race this year to replace term-limited Murphy.
One candidate, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, suggested a retaliatory congestion fee for motorists who cross from New York into the Garden State.
“There’s plenty of crossings between Staten Island, New York, Bergen County, Hudson County into New Jersey,” Fulop told Fox 5 NY.
“There’s plenty of opportunities to have the same sort of impact fee that New York is putting on New Jersey.”
Hochul touted the toll — which will be used to fund the MTA’s massive capital construction program — during her own policy booklet released Tuesday.
“Under Governor Hochul’s leadership the MTA will advance a number of transformative projects, including the Second Ave Subway Phase 2 extension to East Harlem, modern signal systems on segments of the A/C and B/D/F/M lines for over 1.5 million daily riders, accessibility improvements at more than 20 stations, and hundreds of new electric buses,” the governor’s booklet stated.
“These and other investments are being funded by New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program, which went into effect on January 5th following the Governor’s successful effort to lower the toll by 40 percent, and which will generate $15 billion in mass transportation funding,” her policy paper said.
Hochul delayed the toll in June when it was pegged at $15, only to ram through a $9 tax after the November elections.
She claims congestion pricing will curb the number of vehicles entering Manhattan by 10%.
Transit advocates who backed congestion pricing note that New York motorists pay tolls to travel along highways on the west side of the Hudson — such as the the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber has called Jersey toll opponents hypocrites.
Congestion pricing was set in motion by a 2019 law approved by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature — though Cuomo now says he opposes the $9 toll as potentially causing “more harm than good.”
