NYC Ambulance Workers Slam $15 Congestion Toll: ‘It’s a Slap in the Face’

By:  Benyamin Davidsons

The controversial $15 congestion toll, to be set for vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th street during daytime hours, has another opponent.

As reported by the NY Post, New York City ambulance workers are in an outrage that emergency vehicles workers, including paramedics and EMTs driving to work, will be on the hook to pay the congestion toll.  A union president for emergency workers is warning that the congestion pricing plan will make hiring EMS workers in the Big Apple more difficult, and may even increase response times in some of NYC’s busiest neighborhoods.

More than 400 ambulance workers are assigned to three FDNY Emergency Service stations south of 60th Street in the congestion pricing district, said Oren Barzilay, president of the Local 2507 union, which represents over 3,000 emergency medical technicians, paramedics and fire inspectors.  He said that NYC already has a hard time recruiting ambulance workers, due to low pay and high housing costs in the city.  A lot of EMS employees have to commute from homes outside NYC, including lower-cost suburbs of Long Island, and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  Many of these workers drive into the city, as mass transit would be less convenient, he said.

Incidentally, EMTs and paramedics are some of the lowest paid among New York City’s uniformed forces, as they still haven’t secured a new labor contract with Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.  Currently, EMTs salaries range from $39,386 for newbies up to $59,534 after five years, while the salaries for medics start at $53,891 and go up to $75,872 for five-year veterans.  These workers will be on the hook to pay roughly $4,000 extra annually just to drive to their jobs in the Midtown Manhattan toll district, Barzilay said.  “It’s an insult — a slap in the face,” he fumed.  “I have members who live 100 miles away in places where housing and cost of living is cheaper. They can’t afford to live in the city,” Barzilay said.

“Our EMS workers are the city’s life savers. They put their hands on people to save their lives. We bring the emergency room to New Yorkers’ homes. We bring people back from the dead every day,” Barzilay said.  “This is what my members get in return — a $15 toll! These aren’t just other drivers coming into the city. They are essential workers.”  Barzilay added that response times will suffer in neighborhoods surrounded by the tolls—which include the three of the busiest FDNY EMS ambulance stations — namely at Bellevue hospital, on the Lower East Side and in Chelsea. They serve the Times Square business district as well as the downtown financial district on Wall Street.  “A $15 toll is going to cause a hiring problem of EMS workers for the city. I don’t think response times are going to be good in these neighborhoods in the congestion pricing zone,” Barzilay said.

The congestion toll, set to take effect as early as May, was introduced last month by a state-commissioned task force, to curb traffic as well as raise money for the cash-strapped MTA.  While Gov. Kathy Hochul has backed the toll, Mayor Eric Adams has been saying exemptions should be added for people driving in for medical appointments and for city vehicles.

Per the Post, Transit officials have countered that adding exemptions for certain groups would force the MTA to raise the congestion toll higher than $15 for the public.