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By: Hellen Zaboulani
Republicans are eying the Congestion Tax as another grand faux-pas on the part of Democrats, which will weaken their foes stance in the 2024 elections.
As reported by the NY Post, Democrats have approved a $15 toll which motorists will be forced to pay to enter Midtown Manhattan beginning in May 2024. Gov. Kathy Hochul has backed the congestion tax program, which is expected to raise $1 billion for mass transit and also reduce congestion into Manhattan. In 2019, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic-led state Senate and Assembly had approved the congestion pricing law, setting up the Traffic Mobility Review Board. Last week, the board recommended the new $15 peak-hours toll for private cars entering Midtown south of 60th Street, which is being approved.
Republicans see this new controversial tax almost as a nail in the Democratic party’s coffin, which will help the GOP defeat them in the upcoming election. In the previous election, the Democrats were prevailed over, especially in Long Island, because of the widely unpopular cashless bail law, which voters blamed for the increase in crime and shoplifting. This congestion tax, too, is being seen as a gift to the GOP, which will weaken the Democratic stance in voters’ eyes.
“The Albany Democrats own congestion pricing. The Democrats are going to be blamed when the toll goes up,” said Republican pollster John McLaughlin, who has surveyed voters regarding the issue for the GOP. “It’s a brutal time for the working-class person already struggling with Biden inflation. They have zero tolerance for taxes — and the congestion toll is a big tax and they’re very skeptical about what they’re going to get back from the MTA for it in terms of service,” added McLaughlin.
Public polls show that the tax is intensely unpopular with voters in the suburbs and outer borough areas, which drive into the city. A recent poll by Newsday/Siena College revealed that roughly 73 percent of Long Island residents opposed congestion pricing, while only 22 percent supported it. The poll includes the suburbs where Democrats have already been toppled from all the top countywide seats, in a large part thanks to the infamous cashless bail law.
Per the Post, many Republican candidates are looking forward to linking their Democratic contenders to this upcoming congestion tax, using it to their advantage. Congress members Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and Michael Lawyer are among the incumbent GOPers who intend to use this as a propeller in their upcoming re-election bids, which are expected to be close. “From anti-policing legislation to higher energy costs to the congestion pricing cash grab, every policy we see from the Democrats are making life more difficult and unaffordable for New Yorkers. Congestion pricing is just another burdensome tax that will cost commuters thousands of dollars a year, while shifting pollution and traffic from Manhattan to the outer-boroughs,” Malliotakis told The Post Sunday.
“At a time when New Yorkers are struggling to make ends meet and can barely afford to live here, Governor Hochul and Albany Democrats have enacted an outrageous cash grab, stealing hundreds of millions from suburban commuters to fund the MTA’s bloated and mismanaged operations”, said first-term GOP Rep. Michael Lawler, who reps the 17th congressional District including Rockland and the lower Hudson Valley.
