By:  Hellen Zaboulani

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who in 2019 had been the main driving force pushing for the state’s controversial congestion pricing law, is now urging officials not to move forward with the program.  As reported by the NY Post, Cuomo recently said the plan to charge vehicles a $15 toll during daytime hours to enter Midtown Manhattan south of 60th Street, would just give people another reason to stay home, post-pandemic.  Cuomo said the Big Apple is still recovering and is facing the migrant crisis, a spike in crime and homelessness.

“There’s been a change in circumstance,” Cuomo said, referring to the difference between 2019 when he had championed the legislation, and NYC today, after the COVID-19 pandemic.  “There’s now a choice C: stay home,” he told Fox 5 last week on ‘Good Day New York’.  “‘The cost has gotten too high. It’s another impediment. I don’t want to pay a higher toll to drive into New York City that has high crime, that has homelessness. I’ll stay home,’” he added, speaking for drivers.  “That didn’t exist six years ago,” Cuomo noted. “Nobody got to stay home. There were no Zoom meetings.”

Per the Post, Cuomo cited the need for a new study to look into whether the $15 toll will dissuade drivers from visiting the Big Apple.  “I would like to see an analysis that shows today’s present reality,” he said. “If you raise the tolls, would you cause more people to stay home, which would in fact raise less money?”

Compared to his strong backing for the congestion pricing back in 2019, it seems the former governor has changed his opinion 180 degrees.  At the time, he had faced tough opposition from some lawmakers for the legislation to introduce a congestion pricing toll to enter Midtown Manhattan, and still he had persevered, prioritizing and passing the law with his full might, thereby setting up the Traffic Mobility Review Board.    “Congestion pricing is the only logical and realistic option to fund the [Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s] capital needs,” Cuomo had said at the time.

He had claimed that the toll wouldn’t really affect motorists too much because it’s generally the “very rich people” who can afford to drive into Manhattan.  “Outer-borough residents are not driving their cars into Manhattan. That’s not how they come in,” Cuomo had said. “I’m a Queens boy. Only very rich people can drive into Manhattan. You have to pay the toll. You have to pay parking… It probably comes close to $100 a day.”  He added that “it’s a luxury” to drive into Midtown.

The toll, which may go into effect as early as next spring, had been intended to address solutions to two problems: the traffic into Midtown Manhattan, and to raise much-needed funding for the city’s aging subway system.  Mass-transit advocates are now fuming about Cuomo’s change of stance on the controversial issue.  “The former governor could have been remembered for setting us on the path to fix the subway. Now that he’s out of power, this Grinch doesn’t want anyone to have a modern, reliable, accessible public transit network,” said Daniel Pearstein of the Riders Alliance.

On Sunday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority blasted Cuomo for flip-flopping on the topic.  “Congestion pricing worked in Singapore, Stockholm and London where more people are visiting the central business district since it started,” said MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan in an e-mailed statement.