Transit leaders on Monday voted to approve New York City’s congestion pricing program, fueling a growing backlash against Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose decision to revive the unpopular proposal has given her critics ammunition to renew their attacks.
Governor Hochul sidelined congestion pricing in June because she said she feared its economic impact on New Yorkers trying to make ends meet. But the policy also threatened to harm the political fortunes of Ms. Hochul’s fellow Democrats during congressional elections earlier this month.
Now, the re-emergence of congestion pricing has predictably drawn the ire of Republicans, who are already eying the governor’s race in 2026. Among the loudest voices is Representative Mike Lawler, who is rumored to be considering a run for governor, and who released an ad in recent days targeting the toll plan and Governor Hochul.
And while a great majority of Democrats in New York City have cheered the return of the plan, suburban Democrats have also shown frustration at the return of congestion pricing.
Ms. Hochul’s revised plan will charge most drivers $9 to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan, and is expected to generate $15 billion to pay for essential repairs and upgrades to the city’s mass transit system. The hope is that the fees will get cars off the crowded streets of Manhattan while improving traffic and air quality.
But groups from across the New York metropolitan area, including teachers and truckers as well as the State of New Jersey, have complained that the plan is unfair to people who have no choice but to drive into the tolling zone. They also have said the tolls will shift traffic and pollution to other parts of the city and region, including to many disadvantaged communities.
On Monday, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that will operate the toll program, approved the plan in a 12-1 vote. It is expected to start in early January.
The plan must now be signed off on by the Federal Highway Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation, and by the city and state transportation departments. Before the tolls can be charged, the M.T.A. must also complete a 60-day public education campaign that was mandated by a 2019 state law authorizing the program. The M.T.A. had started the campaign in late April, and had roughly 20 days left when the program was paused in June.
“It’s been a bumpy road, but it’s getting smoother now,” said Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the authority’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, a watchdog group that supports the plan. “We need congestion pricing. It’s the only solution to cleaner air, less traffic and funding traffic infrastructure.”
Ms. Hochul had canceled the tolling plan just weeks before it was scheduled to begin. At the time, the toll for most drivers would have been $15, which the governor said was too high. Last week, she sought to salvage the program by reducing the rates in the tolling plan by 40 percent across the board.
But instead, Ms. Hochul has also renewed complaints from Republicans, who see the toll as a potent political weapon ahead of the governor’s race.
Within days of the news that the toll would be reinstated, Mr. Lawler, a Republican representing the lower Hudson Valley, released a slickly produced ad that showed him railing against Ms. Hochul’s plan from the driver’s seat of his car.
“I’ve been fighting congestion pricing for years, because it’s nothing more than a scam — a cash grab,” he says in the ad. “And we’re never going to let Kathy Hochul and the M.T.A. bring it back.”
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