New York offered New Jersey a measly $3 discount for its drivers crossing into Manhattan to try to offset the new $9 Midtown toll, but Garden State officials scoffed the break would mean virtually nothing once the tax jumps to $15, sources say.
The pooh-poohed proposal was pitched during secret court-ordered negotiations to try to settle New Jersey’s federal lawsuit against New York before the hated congestion toll took effect Sunday, a source familiar with the discussions said.
Federal Judge Leo Gordon, who was hearing the Garden State’s challenge to the first-in-the-nation congestion pricing fee, urged the warring states to try to reach a compromise by having New York and the MTA provide some relief to neighboring Jersey commuters.
A source close to the confidential talks in US District Court in Newark, NJ, said New York was too stingy and that the discussions broke down because of that, prompting Gordon to then reject New Jersey’s bid to block the toll from taking effect Sunday.
“New York only offered a $3 credit for all three crossings [the George Washington Bridge and Lincoln and Holland tunnels], which wasn’t meaningful,” the source said.
“New Jersey saw it as a very nominal amount given that the congestion toll will eventually go up to $15 over time.”
“New Jersey was clear and consistent in what it wanted: credits above $3 for commuters at all three crossings into New York City and meaningful mitigation funding reflecting the actual impacts that congestion pricing will have on New Jersey’s air quality,” the source said.
But another source told The Post that the Empire State agreed to extend the 33% credit as the toll goes up. For example, the credit would jump to $5 when the toll hits $15.
The new toll is scheduled to rise to $12 by 2028 and $15 by 2031.
The second source said Jersey was misreading or misleading what was offered.
Sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the judge ordered a gag order on the discussions.
Either way, Garden State officials are fuming.
The two sides have to work together on regional transportation and economic development issues through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an agency overseen jointly by the state’s two governors — and there is expected to be political fallout from the toll that will affect that relationship.
In terms of any pollution mitigation needed because of the toll — which is expected to increase traffic in North Jersey as people drive there to be closer to mass transit into Manhattan — the MTA offered New Jersey $30 million, sources said.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy considered the sum an insult, sources said.
Meanwhile, the MTA and New York Gov. Kathy dedicated more than $100 million to New York communities, including $71.7 million for The Bronx alone — boasting about it in a press release — to try to curb the expected extra pollution in those areas from the toll.
Hochul and the MTA claimed they offered “hundreds of millions of dollars” to settle the suit, which a source claimed is “total fiction.”
For example, New York offered $500 million to cover a $1 billion shortfall to build a new Port Authority bus terminal — but the two states had already split the costs to cover the deficit, said the source familiar with the discussions.
But another source said Hochul and the MTA never promised $500 million for the PA bus terminal.
“Talk about chutzpah — New Jersey walked away from a deal that would’ve helped their own constituents, all because they refused a deal where New York and New Jersey commuters were treated equally,” a New York source said.
“New York was willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to settle this case, but there’s no chance in hell they’d ever give benefits to Jersey that weren’t available to New Yorkers,” said a source familiar with New York’s thinking.
“They [Jersey officials] gambled that they were going to win the lawsuit, and now they have egg on their face,” this insider said.
A rep for Murphy said, “We will continue fighting against this unfair and unpopular scheme.”
