As his gubernatorial campaign ramps up, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) promised action against New York should officials continue a plan to implement congestion pricing in lower Manhattan — including a threat to essentially freeze the Port Authority, a move Gov. Phil Murphy once called the “nuclear option.”
The congressman said that his first act as governor would be to veto the minutes of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which would keep the Port Authority’s decisions from taking effect. Projects, budgets, and other operations at the Port Authority’s major airports, bridges, and ports could come to a standstill, putting New Jersey and New York in a potentially chaotic scenario until an agreement is reached.
Murphy has threatened to veto the Port Authority’s minutes before (and has vetoed the minutes of other similar boards), and former Gov. Chris Christie also threatened a veto in 2010.
The congestion pricing will charge most vehicles entering lower Manhattan a toll of $9. The plan has been a punching bag for New Jersey politicians for months — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul initially paused a $15 entrance toll in June, but she revived a $9 version of the policy earlier this month. The money from the congestion tolls will go to the MTA.
Gottheimer supplemented his gubernatorial plans with congressional moves, including a pair of letters: one to the U.S. Department of Transportation asking for a study and 60-day comment period on the policy, and the other congressional leadership calling for a vote on legislation that would prevent the plan from taking place.
“We stopped the congestion tax once, we’ll stop it again. Game on,” Gottheimer said. “At a time of inflation, New York’s attempt to whack New Jersey families and their own families with another tax is completely and utterly absurd.”
Gottheimer announced his plans at a Tuesday morning press conference in Fort Lee with the George Washington Bridge looming behind him.
Gottheimer represents a New York-adjacent district where many commuters reside. The Democrat was one of the loudest voices against the first iteration of the congestion toll plan, which Hochul said she ended because of potential harm to New Yorkers.
But news of the return of congestion pricing came just days after this month’s election — and just days before Gottheimer officially announced he would run for governor. His opposition to the “congestion tax,” as he calls it, has become a central tenet of his campaign — he sees it as nothing short of a financial attack upon New Jerseyans who already face a high cost of living.
Murphy first threatened the “nuclear option” of vetoing the Port Authority’s minutes back in 2021 when congestion pricing talks were just getting off the ground in New York. Gottheimer that year praised the governor’s threat to Politico, saying, “It’s great, I love that he’s out there swinging.”
A veto of a bi-state agency’s minutes isn’t unprecedented. In 2019, Murphy vetoed the minutes of the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which prevented a $1 toll hike from taking effect at the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Murphy later reached a compromise with Delaware Gov. John Carney, allowing the toll hike to happen with discounts to certain drivers.
Gottheimer isn’t alone in his repudiation of congestion pricing. On the gubernatorial campaign trail in Paterson on Thursday morning, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) also expressed her disgust toward the tolls, calling the policy a “money grab.”
“I strongly supported Gov. Murphy’s lawsuit against New York’s congestion pricing plan last year and I will work with him to use every tool available to force New York to consider an alternative path forward that does not neglect NJ TRANSIT, the New Jersey commuters that power New York’s economy, and the communities that would be hurt most by the environmental impact of this ridiculous plan,” Sherrill said in a release later Tuesday.
Gottheimer, meanwhile, made one thing clear: With congestion pricing, even the nuclear option is in play.
“As ever, I’m very hopeful that New York will come to its senses again and realize this plan will hurt their families and ours,” Gottheimer said. “We’re always better when we work together as a region, like we have with the Port Authority for more than a century. And as long as we do that in the greatest country in the world, I know that our best days will always be ahead of us.”