State Senator Leroy Comrie, who oversees the MTA committee, is urging the authority not to allow any more exceptions to the toll or congestion pricing program to be implemented in Manhattan next year.
The legislator warned that the income that the state requires to fix the public transport system could be lost.
Senators and Assembly members from suburban Westchester want discounts for commuters in their communities when the MTA rolls out Manhattan tolls below 60th Street.
“We who work and live in New York City should have something more flexible. Right now everything is expensive and if we have to pay a toll it would be additional expenses, so I don’t agree,” said a neighbor.
State lawmakers approved the congestion pricing plan in 2019 with three exemptions: for emergency vehicles, for vehicles transporting disabled New Yorkers, and for drivers who live within the Manhattan congestion zone and earn less than $60,000. dollars a year. Even among those who qualify for exemptions, there is opposition to the program.
“And all that money they gave when COVID started, where does it come from? It comes from us and there is no need to pay a toll to cross from the 60 down. They have to find another way so that this does not happen,” he said. another neighbor.
For others like Luis, who began taking Uber passengers in order to provide for his family, it is a matter of time. It says that the implementation of the program, with or without exceptions, must be delayed.
“This is not the time, maybe later in the future, because right now we are all tight pockets and we are all looking for how to get a little money to survive,” said Luis Cajamarca.
MTA officials have also warned that more extensions mean a higher price for other drivers.
For his part, its interim president has said that with these delays, the program could not start until the third quarter of 2023.
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