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Former governor and potential mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo opposes Gov. Kathy Hochul’s controversial $9 congestion toll to enter Midtown Manhattan, The Post has learned.
It’s the first time Cuomo has weighed in on the $9 commuter tax since Hochul unveiled it after the November elections.
“It is undeniable that New York is in a dramatically different place today than it was in 2019, and without a study forecasting [the toll’s] consequences based on facts, not politics, it could do more harm than good to New York City’s recovery,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi told The Post on Sunday, referring to his boss’s stance on the new commuter tax.
Cuomo is sort of the father of congestion pricing in the US. He was largely responsible for muscling the first-in-the-nation congestion toll plan through New York’s legislature in 2019 to help fund mass transit and curb traffic in Manhattan’s central business district.
But he has since backed off the tactic, writing in a Post op-ed column in March, “The people of New York know this is not the time to implement congestion pricing,” while citing a shaky post-COVID economic recovery and subway crime.
He feels the same way now even though the toll was lowered by Hochul from $15 to 9 before it takes effect next Sunday, Jan. 5.
Cuomo’s reversal comes as he is weighing a political comeback bid for New York City mayor.
He resigned as governor in August 2021 after accusations of misconduct and under threat of impeachment — though he’s denied wrongdoing.
Azzopardi said Cuomo still believes congestion pricing is “ultimately the right policy” and that’s why he fought to approve it. But “the question is whether now is the right time to implement it,” the rep said.
“Congestion pricing is premised on a safe and reliable subway system, and given the obvious lack of confidence the public currently has in the subway system – combined with the tenuous state of New York City post-COVID – the Governor called for a data-driven study on the impact of congestion pricing to inform the timing of such a major policy change and to ensure New York was not creating additional obstacles to its comeback,” Azzopardi said.
There have been 10 murders in the subway this year, the highest homicide tally in 25 years. That figure includes the horrifying arson murder of a sleeping straphanger on a train last week, allegedly at the hands of a sadistic illegal Guatemalan migrant.
A rep for Hochul — who served as Cuomo’s lieutenant governor — fired back at her predecessor’s shifting stand and accused him of “gubernatorial mismanagement.”
“Drivers upset about paying a $9 toll when entering Manhattan should remember two things: Andrew Cuomo is the reason they’re paying a toll, and Kathy Hochul is the reason it’s 40% lower than originally envisioned,” said Hochul spokesman Avi Small.
“Governor Hochul took office in 2021 — two years after congestion pricing became law — and got to work fixing the mess she inherited at the MTA following a decade of gubernatorial mismanagement,” Small added.
Toll opponents welcomed Cuomo’s change of heart, but noted the ex-governor is the one who put the issue front and center.
“It’s nice to see that now Cuomo recognizes what a bad idea congestion pricing is, but we won’t forget that he was the one who signed it into law just like the bail reform and sanctuary state policies that have made us less safe,” said.Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).
“Maybe he should have listened to Republicans before championing these disastrous policies,” added Malliotakis, who also challenged Hochul to ride the subway without her state police security detail.
Hochul originally tabled a $15 proposed toll to enter Midtown south of 60th Street, then infamously waited till after the election to push a $9 commuter tax.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority also has the authority to raise the tolls by 25% on gridlock alert days.
But Hochul, who largely controls the MTA, derailed the gridlock surcharge last week after an exclusive Post report about the outrageous add-on.
Malliotakis and other congestion-pricing foes are appealing to President-elect Donald Trump, who opposes congestion pricing, to stop the toll, which was approved by the Biden administration.
“I think there’s an avenue for President Trump to intervene and stop it,” Malliotakis said on 77 WABC radio’s the “Cats Roundtable” show Sunday. “[We] do have a lawsuit still in court, as does New Jersey.
“We’re still hopeful that we can stop this congestion pricing cash grab that will cost commuters thousands of dollars,”
A majority of New Yorkers — 51% — oppose a congestion toll on Manhattan commuters, according to a recent Siena College poll. Only 29% of those polled said they were supportive of the congestion tax with another 20% saying they were unsure or were in the middle.
The toll is backed by transit advocates and environmental groups, the Regional Planning Association and the Partnership for the City of New York, a top business advocacy group.
