Transit leaders on Monday voted to approve New York City’s congestion pricing program, fueling a growing backlash against Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose decision to revive the unpopular proposal has given her critics ammunition to renew their attacks.
The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that will operate the toll program, approved the plan in a 12-to-1 vote. It is expected to start in early January.
Governor Hochul sidelined congestion pricing in June because she said she feared its economic impact on New Yorkers. But the policy also threatened to harm the political fortunes of Ms. Hochul’s fellow Democrats during congressional elections earlier this month.
Now, the re-emergence of congestion pricing, which would be the first program of its kind in the nation, has predictably angered Republicans, who are already eying the governor’s race in 2026. Among the loudest voices is Representative Mike Lawler, who represents a district in the New York suburbs and is rumored to be considering a run for governor. He released an ad in recent days targeting the toll plan and Governor Hochul.
And while many Democrats in New York City have cheered the return of congestion pricing, some suburban Democrats have shown frustration.
Ms. Hochul’s revised plan, which will charge most drivers $9 to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan, is expected to generate $15 billion to pay for essential repairs and upgrades to the city’s mass transit system. It aims to get cars off the crowded streets of Manhattan while improving traffic and air quality.
But groups that include city teachers and truckers as well as officials from the State of New Jersey have complained that the plan is unfair to people who have no choice but to drive into the tolling zone. They also have said the tolls will shift traffic and pollution to other parts of the city and region, including to many disadvantaged communities.
The Federal Highway Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation, and city and state transportation departments must now sign off on the plan. The M.T.A. must also complete a 60-day public education campaign that was mandated by a 2019 state law authorizing the program. The authority had started the campaign in late April and had roughly 20 days left when the program was paused in June.
“It’s been a bumpy road, but it’s getting smoother now,” said Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the authority’s Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, a watchdog group that supports the plan. “We need congestion pricing. It’s the only solution to cleaner air, less traffic and funding traffic infrastructure.”
Ms. Hochul had canceled the tolling plan just weeks before it was scheduled to begin. At the time, the toll for most drivers would have been $15, which the governor said was too high. Last week, she reduced the rates by 40 percent across the board.
But her action has also renewed complaints from Republicans, who see the toll as a potent political weapon ahead of the governor’s race.
Within days of the news that the toll would be reinstated, Mr. Lawler released a slickly produced ad that showed him railing against Ms. Hochul’s plan from the driver’s seat of his car.
“I’ve been fighting congestion pricing for years, because it’s nothing more than a scam — a cash grab,” he says in the ad. “And we’re never going to let Kathy Hochul and the M.T.A. bring it back.”
After Monday’s vote, Edward F. Cox, chairman of the New York State Republican Party, said, “Kathy Hochul’s blatant flip-flop on congestion pricing immediately after the election is politics at its most cynical.
“She has betrayed working New Yorkers, saddling the people who can least afford it with even higher costs to make up for the failures of her own leadership.”
Ms. Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Among Democrats, the return of congestion pricing laid bare the divisions between the city and the suburbs. Jabari Brisport, a state senator who represents Brooklyn, posted a photo on Friday of a 16-minute wait for an A train with the caption “congestion pricing can’t come soon enough.”
But Representative Pat Ryan, a Hudson Valley Democrat whose district sits alongside Mr. Lawler’s, expressed frustration.
“For residents of NYC, especially Manhattan, this plan might make sense,” Mr. Ryan wrote on the platform X last week. But he said that creating a financial barrier to driving into the city was only fair if people had access to reliable transit.
“Nothing has changed. Costs are still too high, there’s still no real plan to improve service in the Hudson Valley,” he wrote.
Douglas Muzzio, a longtime political analyst and retired professor of public affairs at Baruch College, said that Ms. Hochul’s sudden pause of congestion pricing and now her “11th-hour conversion” to restore it made her appear indecisive and could have consequences for her political future.
“She’s generally perceived to be a relatively weak governor, and this is an example of that — the pausing of it, the restart of it, she didn’t think it through and was indecisive,” he said.
Mr. Muzzio said that congestion pricing remains a hot political issue among those who would have to pay the tolls, including people living in parts of Queens and the Bronx as well as in the Long Island suburbs. Just reducing the tolls, he added, would not mollify these critics. “Whether the fee is decreased or not, it’s still a fee,” he said. “And fees are anathema to most people.”
Still, the revised tolling plan has moved forward at lightning speed in the past five days since Gov. Hochul’s announcement. A broad coalition of transportation, environmental, business and civic groups has increased pressure on the governor in recent months by holding rallies, flooding her office with calls and lobbying Ms. Hochul and her staff in private.
Though many advocates say they still want to see the original $15 toll, they have come around to supporting the lower tolls for now to get congestion pricing up and running before the inauguration of Donald Trump, who has said he would seek to strike down the policy in his first days in office.
Nine lawsuits have been filed in federal courts in New York and New Jersey challenging congestion pricing. Some plaintiffs in those cases have vowed to keep fighting and are considering seeking an injunction to block the revised tolling plan.
The strongest legal challenge is widely considered to be a case brought by New Jersey officials, including Governor Philip D. Murphy, which was argued before a federal judge in Newark in April and is awaiting a decision. “This post-election rush reeks of politics,” said Randy Mastro, a lawyer who represents the State of New Jersey, on Monday.
“This is an unprecedented congestion pricing scheme that will have huge consequences for the entire region,” he added. “So time to put on the brakes, not try to steamroll ahead.”
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