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By: Dusty Wolfe
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Sunday ripped the MTA’s congestion pricing plan, warning New York City, as it recovers from the pandemic, shouldn’t want to give people “some other excuse to not be in Manhattan.”
The controversial program, described in an exclusive report by The New York Post, which aims to cut traffic in downtown Manhattan by charging drivers anywhere from $9 to $23 —” would be unfair to Jersey commuters, and hurt communities still struggling to recover from the pandemic”, Murphy told radio host John Catsimatidis on his Cats Roundtable on top rated radio station WABC 770 AM.
Murphy, a two-term Democratic Governor, added the glacial pace at which plans have moved to renovate the Port Authority Bus Terminal and build new tunnels under the Hudson River has only made things worse.
“I don’t want to speak for New York,” Murphy states. “But if we’re already, all of us, in the process of struggling to get back on our feet post-pandemic — because we all are — the last thing it seems to me you want to do is to give people some other excuse to not be in Manhattan.”
“If they were already done, and the New Jersey commuter had a real alternative to driving … that they could get in a bus and be sure of a quick ride or one-seat train ride, that would be one thing, but that’s not the case at the moment,” Murphy said to The New York Post.
Passed in 2019, the MTA program would place a toll on vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street.
It has garnered adamant support from transit advocates who argue congestion pricing will ease gridlock, help the environment and boost mass transit.
But opponents — including a bipartisan group of Congressional representatives who want to scuttle the plan — say the toll will hurt motorists, discourage tourism and push pollution to the outer boroughs and across the Hudson.
Philip Dunton Murphy according to his Wikipedia page, born August 16, 1957, is an American financier, diplomat, and politician serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since January 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama.
Murphy had a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he held several high-level positions and accumulated considerable wealth before retiring in 2006. He is involved in many civic organizations and philanthropic pursuits. He served as finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee in the mid-late 2000s under Howard Dean. In the Obama administration.
While planning to run for governor, Murphy and his wife Tammy Murphy launched New Start New Jersey, a progressive organization active from November 2014 to December 2017, intended to increase his political visibility in the state.
“It is unusual for as left wing Democrat to speak out against any policy which hinders driving, as the left wing mantra is to destroy the ability for the average American to drive , while the loving left drive around in stretch limos and use private Jets, progressives scorn the American family who might take a joy ride and admonish those who choose to drive over taking public transportation, this is highly unusual, Murphy went off the Marxist environmental scam control grid agenda”, TJV Web Editor Jared Evan explained.
