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'We will get it done': NY Republicans say Trump agreed to help kill congestion pricing
By
Clayton Guse
Published Jan 12, 2025
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KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
By
Clayton Guse
Published Jan 12, 2025
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A group of New York Republicans left a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday, promising to revoke the MTA's congestion pricing tolls. But they were short on details as to how they'll actually nix the new fees.
The trip to Florida, attended by a posse of local lawmakers including Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino, came less than a week after New York became the first place in the country to launch congestion tolls, which now hit drivers with a $9 daytime fee to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.
In May, before Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed back the program's launch, Trump wrote on social media he would "TERMINATE" the tolls upon returning to the White House.
Lawler, who represents the Hudson Valley, wrote on X following Saturday's meeting that Trump "reiterated his support for lifting the cap on SALT [State and Local Tax Deduction] and ending congestion pricing."
"We will get it done," Lawler added, without specifying how.
Malliotakis, who posted a selfie to X next to the incoming president, who was wearing a red baseball hat bearing the words "Trump Was Right About Everything," wrote that Trump "understands the plight of New Yorkers who are being abused by our mayor and our governor who treat them like ATMs."
Malliotakis said in a statement that "Republicans at the federal level will try to provide relief from the burdens placed by Democrats at the state level."
After Hochul lifted her pause on the tolling program just after November's election, Lawler and Malliotakis vowed to leverage Republican majorities in both houses of Congress to nix the program. Lawler at the time told Gothamist that he wants Trump to use his executive authority to revoke approval for the tolls. The program required authorization from the Federal Highway Administration, which gave the MTA's plan the green light several times before the agency began collecting the tolls.
If Trump's unable to kill the fees, Lawler said he would instead pursue legislation to ban the program.
Legislative action on congestion pricing would require Republicans to use their slim majority in the House of Representatives to pass a bill to cancel the tolls. The Republicans may also find support from some Congressional Democrats in New Jersey like Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill, who are both running for governor this year and have been vocal opponents of congestion pricing.
MTA Chair Janno Lieber defended the program during a podcast appearance last week, saying numerous lawsuits have failed to halt the tolls. He also criticized politicians for prioritizing people who drive into Manhattan, who are sharply outnumbered by those who commute into the borough on mass transit.
"It [congestion pricing] is somehow perceived by some of these folks as a wedge issue that they can make hay over and build political careers over," said Lieber. "I don't know about that, but the constituents are actually, in most cases, big mass transit users, and not in the fantasy world that everybody is driving."
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Clayton Guse
Clayton is the editor of the Transit and Infrastructure desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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