New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has personally appealed to President Trump to kill the new congestion toll Garden State commuters have to pay to enter midtown Manhattan.
“As you begin your second term as president, I welcome any opportunity to work with you and your administration where we can find common ground,” Murphy, a Democrat, said in a letter sent to Trump, a Republican, just moments after he was sworn in as the 47th president Monday.
“One area where we believe our priorities align is congestion pricing,” Murphy wrote in the letter, obtained by The Post.
Murphy told Trump that Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York are abusing New Jersey motorists by socking them with a congestion fee to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street — on top of the tolls they already pay to enter the business district from the Port Authority of New York’s Hudson River crossings to enter Manhattan.
“New York’s scheme has never been well designed or adequately studied,” the governor said.
“The resulting congestion pricing plan is a disaster for working and middle class New Jersey commuters who need or want to visit lower Manhattan and now need to pay a big fee on top of the bridge and tunnel toes they already pay.”
He noted that even Trump — during the 2024 campaign –said the Biden Administration’s US Department of Transportation and Federal HIghway Administration “railroaded” approvals for the toll before the incoming president, an opponent of congestion pricing, could take office and block it.
Adding insult to injury, Murphy said, Jersey communities are not being compensated for traffic rerouted to their areas because of the new toll.
Murphy noted that Trump has called the congestion toll a “”disaster” and a “massive business killer,” “the worst plan in the history of womankind” and promised to TERMINATE congestion pricing in my FIRST WEEK BACK in office!!!”
The $9 toll, administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, went into effect January 5.
Jersey motorists get a $3 credit, and pay a $6 fee on top of existing tolls to cross the Hudson into New York via the Lincoln and Holland tunnel.
But they pay the full $9 congestion fee if they’re crossing into New York from the George Washington Bridge, and the three Staten Island bridges — the Bayonne, Goethals and Outerbridge Crossing.
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