The head of the MTA blasted New Jersey critics of the Big Apple’s congestion pricing plan Tuesday, as he joined Gov. Kathy Hochul to defend the new tolls for cars in Manhattan.
Janno Lieber mocked the Garden State leaders as hypocrites for suing over the transit fundraising scheme — which would charge drivers $15 a day during peak hours for entering south of 60th Street — as Jersey charges pricy tolls on their own superhighways.
“I’m still waiting for the call where they ask our opinion about tolls on the Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State [Parkway],” Leiber said, as he spoke with Hochul in Union Square to boost the program.
He also reminded New Jerseyans who runs New York.
“Our neighbors across the river seem content to let traffic keep choking our streets — and they are our streets, in case anyone is confused about that,” he said.
The Garden State has lots of its own tolls. It slaps a charge of up to $20 on New Yorkers with EZPass to ride down the length of the New Jersey Turnpike.
Nevertheless, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy argues the New York congestion pricing program is unfair to his constituents and has filed a lawsuit to try and overturn the program’s approval by the federal government.
Lieber also Tuesday appeared to turn his attention on one of the loudest critics of the program, New Jersey U.S. Rep Josh Gottheimer, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line, which still does not extend to Bergen County some twenty years after it opened even though it’s in the project’s name.
“These are self-styled problem solvers,” the transit honcho added, apparently referring to Gottheimer who he did not name, “who have actually never lifted a finger for mass transit, even when there’s a half-finished rail line in their own goddamn district.”
A spokesman for the congressman disputed Lieber’s insinuation, arguing that the lawmaker was instrumental in passing a key infrastructure bill in 2021, which netted the MTA significant funds for its major projects.
“Does Janno Lieber want to send Jersey the $23.6 billion New York is getting from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill which I helped write and pass and is investing massively in NJ and NY mass transit,” Gottheimer fired back in a statement.
Hochul staunchly defended the pricing plan — which is even getting opposition from Republicans in her own state — at the Manhattan event.
“This is going to be transformative, we’ll have the resources to invest in our system, a 110-year old system, so it’s positioned for the next 110 years,” the Democratic Governor told supporters, she said of the pricing, which was signed into law in 2019 by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.
The Hochul-controlled MTA hopes to launch the tolling program as soon as May. The structure recommended to the MTA board includes steep discounts for drivers coming in overnight, motorcycle riders and a $5 credit against the peak toll for those using the Hudson or East River tunnels.
By law, the toll must generate $1 billion annually to finance $15 billion in major upgrades and expansions for the MTA’s subway systems, commuter railroads lines and bus network.
Janno, meanwhile, tried to paint the pricing plan as a public safety measure, in addition to being a fund raiser.
“Imagine if your family member was in an ambulance with their life on the line, idling in traffic because of congestion. That happens today, look at the Mayor’s Management Report,” he said.
MTA officials said last week the Garden State’s lawsuit is beginning to force them to delay projects that were scheduled to get underway, including the proposed signal upgrades on the A/C lines in Brooklyn.
Supporters say it will make driving better for those who truly need a car to get to Manhattan by slashing roughly 150,000 cars from the 900,000 crowding the roads in Midtown and Lower Manhattan on any given day.
But the program is deeply unpopular in suburban portions of the metro area.
A recent poll by the major Long Island newspaper Newsday found that 73% of Nassau and Suffolk residents oppose the toll, even though the traffic stats show most are already riding the trains.
Republican lawmakers hope to use that anger as a major weapon against Hochul and the Democrats in competitive districts in 2024.
“The Albany Democrats own congestion pricing. The Democrats are going to be blamed when the toll goes up,” said Republican pollster John McLaughlin, who has surveyed voters on the issue for the GOP and its candidates.