'King' Trump slams the breaks on NYC congestion toll, Hochul sues

The Trump administration moved Wednesday to terminate New York City’s new climate toll system, commonly known as congestion pricing.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote to Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday to inform her that his agency and the Trump administration are going to end New York City’s congestion pricing program, which charged drivers a fee to enter the area south of 60th Street in Manhattan. President Donald Trump campaigned against the program, and Duffy told Hochul that the federal government would soon be in touch with the state to “discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations” in his letter.

We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king. pic.twitter.com/PikwB5OwnM

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) February 19, 2025

Duffy argued that congestion pricing hits working- and middle-class people hardest and that New York City’s program is too broad and aggressive relative to the federal law that allowed for its creation in his letter. The correspondence did not include any specific date or timeline for ending the program, and the Trump administration’s intervention to end congestion pricing will likely attract legal challenges, according to the New York Times.

Many environmentalists and liberals hailed the program as a means of raising tax revenues while decreasing pollution by changing incentives around for commuters and would-be drivers, but opponents — including Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy — have railed against the plan as regressive. Congestion pricing has been adopted in foreign cities, but New York City was the first city in the U.S. to roll out a version of the policy.

Notably, Hochul delayed the rollout of the program in June 2024, reportedly because she feared that it could hurt Democrats in the November elections that year. The program subsequently reinstated the congestion pricing scheme just days after election day.

Hochul’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

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