New Jersey Democrats are lining up with New York Republicans to fight New York City’s congestion pricing — and President-elect Donald Trump may soon enter the mix.
Lawmakers are working on bipartisan proposals to thwart the new toll program, which is meant to fund infrastructure and protect the environment by reducing traffic in lower Manhattan. Though it has broad support from Democrats who represent the city, just the prospect of the toll has enraged Democrats on the other side of the Hudson River for years, leading them to join with Republicans who see it as too onerous for drivers and the businesses who depend on them.
“It negatively impacts everybody, regardless of their political affiliation,” New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler told NOTUS of congestion pricing.
The united distaste for the policy has put the two East Coast states at the center of an unusually bipartisan kickoff to the 119th Congress. Negotiations about congestion pricing remedies have been a bright spot for several of those members, who told NOTUS they hope it’s a good sign that this congressional session offers opportunities to work across the aisle amid polarization on almost everything else.
The congestion pricing conversation ramped up after the policy went into effect last week under the direction of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Efforts from lawmakers to roll back the policy come on the heels of the same members’ uniform effort to raise the cap on SALT deductions, which have disproportionately impacted high-income tax filers in New York and New Jersey.
The policy, touted as a way to relieve traffic in New York City and fund MTA infrastructure improvements, charges drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street a toll of up to $9 for passenger vehicles and $21.60 for trucks or buses. Congestion pricing is set to be introduced in phases, with peak tolls on track to increase in 2028 and then again in 2031.
For Republicans from the states in question, congestion pricing negotiations have been a strategic way to signal their allegiance to the incoming administration. Lawler was part of a contingent of New York Republicans who met with Donald Trump this month to discuss congestion pricing and other issues.
Lawler told NOTUS he’s confident Trump will help get rid of the policy, and that its status as an added cost that doesn’t discriminate by partisan affiliation would cement it as “arbitrary and capricious.”
Several Democrats from New Jersey are on board with reforming the policy, too, though they haven’t had the same conversations with the president-elect.
While neither the president nor Congress can directly force Hochul to rescind congestion pricing, they could take other steps to combat the policy. New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer partnered with Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew to introduce legislation this week that would withhold grants from the MTA unless it exempts drivers from congestion tolls. Gottheimer also partnered with Republicans from New York and New Jersey last session on a bill that attempted to stop the onset of congestion pricing.
“I think it’s always a good opportunity to work across the aisle at all times, especially on issues that affect all of us,” Rep. Nellie Pou, a freshman Democrat who represents a northern New Jersey district just minutes away from New York City, told NOTUS.
New Jersey-to-New York commuters have long complained about high costs, delays and outdated infrastructure on systems like NJ Transit and PATH. The onset of congestion pricing last week coincided with a fare hike on PATH, increasing commute costs for thousands of customers.
Hochul directed the MTA to indefinitely delay the onset of the policy in June — a move some of her critics said was a strategy to avoid drawing support away from Democrats ahead of the 2024 election. Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s Democratic governor, launched a last-minute legal challenge this month to try to stop congestion pricing implementation.
But the policy has its ardent defenders. It has garnered support from lobbying groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council and mass transit advocates — and from Democratic lawmakers who actually represent the city in Congress.
Rep. Ritchie Torres told NOTUS “there are strong arguments on both sides” of the congestion pricing debate, but emphasized that the program could remedy “more than 100 million dollars in capital needs that have to be addressed” in the MTA.
And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has long applauded congestion pricing as a measure against climate change and for MTA improvement. She told NOTUS she doesn’t think the New Jersey opponents of congestion pricing should be weighing in on it as much as they are.
“This is New York state infrastructure that is being eroded, used, that requires maintenance, and the idea that we can, kind of, like, have another state rely on our state’s infrastructure and not kind of pitch in to sustain it — something’s gotta give at a certain point,” she said.
She’s at odds with some of her fellow New York Democrats from outside the city — like Rep. Pat Ryan — who have consistently spoken out against congestion pricing, aligning themselves with Trump and with the bipartisan camp that’s against the policy.
Those in that camp are convinced their stance will win out.
“The fight is going to be a bipartisan thing,” New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith said. “We’re going to keep going.”
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Shifra Dayak is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Violet Jira, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report.