New Jersey pols vow to carry on congestion pricing fight as feds greenlight New York plan

A pair of New Jersey pols promised to continue their opposition to New York’s congestion pricing plan following last week’s decision by federal regulators to green-light the tolling scheme.

“We plan to fight — we plan to fight hard,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said at a press conference Tuesday on the New Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel. “That’s what we do in Jersey when someone’s trying to stick it to us.”

Gottheimer, a vocal opponent of the plan that would see all vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th St. tolled in an effort to reduce car traffic and fund the MTA’s capital budget, was joined by Rep Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) who represents Jersey City.

“Look, this is today — without congestion pricing,” Menendez said, gesturing at a four-block long line of cars waiting to enter the tunnel.

He said congestion pricing would clog Jersey City with cars of people who choose not to drive to Manhattan. “If people want to go down to Exchange Place or Newport to take the PATH, this traffic will go through our neighborhoods,” Menendez said.

The lawmakers said that by discouraging drivers from entering Manhattan, congestion pricing would also cut toll revenue for the Port Authority, which operates the bridges and tunnels between New York and New Jersey.

The expected reduction in traffic at Port Authority crossings would cost the bistate agency $1.25 billion over the next decade, Gottheimer said. The congestion pricing plan is expected to finance some $15 billion in capital funding for the MTA.

“It’s a revenue shift from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to the MTA — there’s no way around it,” Menendez said, adding that the lost money could keep the Port Authority from replacing its Midtown bus terminal.

“If the MTA is serious, and this is not a revenue shift to fund their projects ... expand the 7 line to Secaucus Junction station here in New Jersey,” Menendez added, bringing up a long-discussed subway expansion idea.

“If they are serious about getting cars off the road, they would spend every single dollar from this project on the expansion of the 7 line.”

Citing the MTA’s plan to set some congestion-pricing revenue aside for pollution mitigation in the Bronx — where traffic is expected to increase once tolling begins — Gottheimer called the plan “anti-environment.”

“In the MTA acknowledges, in their [2022] report to the federal government, that if their congestion tax program goes into effect, there will be more cars diverted here, at the tunnel, and trucks in northern New Jersey by the GW Bridge, and to the outer boroughs just outside the tolling zone,” Gottheimer said.

“The MTA said the Bronx alone could face 700 more trucks every day.”

The MTA did not respond directly to Gottheimer and Menendez on Tuesday, but spokesman John McCarthy reiterated the importance the agency places on the congestion pricing plan.

“This is a generational opportunity to make it easier to get in and around Manhattan’s Central Business District, and it’s good for the environment, for getting fire trucks, buses and delivery vehicles through the city, and for the millions of people who depend on mass transit,” he said in a statement.

The federal OK of the MTA’s environmental assessment of congestion pricing is among the last steps toward approval of the program. Friday’s signoff by the federal Department of Transportation began a public appraisal period of just over a month.

Gottheimer and Menendez said they would ask the DOT to reconsider its decision.

Many details about congestion pricing have not been settled — including how much tolls will cost, what vehicles if any will be exempt, and what discounts might be available.

An MTA official told the Daily News last week that those details will be worked out in the coming months, in time for congestion pricing to begin early in 2024.