If congestion pricing, now less than two months away from its new January start date , ever dies for good, it will have been tortured to death — by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hochul’s botch of the toll to drive into core Manhattan is so epic, you must wonder: Is she this bad at politics, or is she doing it on purpose?
Last Thursday, five months after her June “pause” on congestion pricing weeks before it was set to start, Hochul unpaused the toll .
She now wants to start collecting cash from drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street on Jan. 5.
She’s made superficially good changes: The $15 toll car toll is now $9, and the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. overnight toll is $2.25, not $3.75.
But this concession to concern about the insane cost of living that is helping to drive people from the state has pleased no one. The toll will phase in to the full $15 over six years.
And the governor hasn’t proffered an antidote to the poison pills that may yet doom congestion pricing.
First, she still plans to charge New Jersey drivers a toll.