New York taxpayers paid for paved roads in Manhattan to facilitate automobile and bus traffic. Then, the city grew. And grew. The roads were inadequate to handle the millions of new residents, so they built more roads. They taxed residents for the new roads and taxed them again to maintain them (gas tax, tax on parking, etc.).
But New York City kept growing. Instead of building new roads or finding other solutions to the traffic problem. New York City and the state of New York decided there were too many people coming into their fair city. So they decided to tax people for the privilege of entering paradise with their dirty, carbon-spewing cars and hope to make it too expensive for the poor to work there.
On Tuesday, a federal court allowed the city and state to tax people for using their vehicles and enter the gates of heaven, er, New York City. The Trump administration fought the so-called "congestion tax," but could never really come up with a legal argument to get rid of it.
Legal or not, it is patently unfair.
The primary financial goal of the program is to provide the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) with enough stable revenue to secure $15 billion in bonds for its capital improvement projects. Gov. Kathy Hochul didn't want to go to the legislature to tax the citizens directly. Instead, she decided to tax people for the privilege of driving into the city.
“The judge’s decision is clear: Donald Trump’s unlawful attempts to trample on the self-governance of his home state have failed spectacularly,” Hochul said in a statement. “Congestion pricing is legal, it works, and it is here to stay.“
It may be legal. And it may work (traffic is down in Manhattan). But at what price? And just because something "works" doesn't mean it's right.
While other legal challenges remain, the 149-page decision by Judge Lewis J. Liman of Federal District Court in Manhattan ends, for now, a heated battle between Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has become a staunch defender of the program, and the White House, which has claimed, without offering evidence, that it would harm the region’s economy.
The ruling comes months after Judge Liman granted the toll program temporary protection from threats issued by the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who had warned that the federal government would withhold approval and funding from a range of highway and transit projects in New York if congestion pricing was not canceled.
Judge Liman, who had signaled skepticism toward the federal government’s argument that it could unilaterally reverse approval for the toll, said the government’s steps to kill congestion pricing and its subsequent threats to the state’s transportation budget were impermissible.
Michael Pollack, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, pointed out that the win was decisive for the city and state.
“The result is that everything the administration has so far said, or tried to do, to stop the congestion pricing program is erased, and the program will continue,” Pollack said.
The state is cheering the fact that businesses don't seem to have been impacted by the toll. But there are no statistics on how many New Jersey citizens were forced to quit their jobs because they couldn't afford to pay the $150-$200 a month in commuting costs. New Jersey's lawsuit against the toll is ongoing, as are several lawsuits filed by trucking companies.
Those suits will likely fail because their arguments were the same as the federal government's. The bottom line is that even if the toll works, New Yorkers are poorer because of it.
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