Companies might easily flee New York for New Jersey if they find that the new congestion pricing toll in Midtown is hurting their business and workers too much, Garden State Sen. George Helmy said Sunday.
The $9 charge for cars and up to nearly $22 for trucks is expected to have an outsized effect on commuting New Jerseyans and firms that do business in Manhattan, Helmy said on CBS New York’s “The Point with Marcia Kramer.”
The senator said the toll — which proponents claim will cut traffic and fund the perennially cash-strapped public transit Metropolitan Transportation Authority — might cause some New York businesses to move across the Hudson, where workers and customers won’t have to fork over the extra cash.
“You’ve seen over the last two years more and more New York City-based organizations, including business groups, say that this is bad for business and bad for working families in the city,” Helmy said.
“A lot of the employees who come to the city every day are New Jerseyans, mostly north New Jerseyans, or [they] live in our shore communities,” the senator said.
“And if they can get [their] businesses to move into Jersey City or Hoboken, where we’re already seeing some of that influx, I think it’s going to be good for New Jersey,” he said.
But he reiterated that congestion pricing as a whole is “bad for New Jersey, and it’s bad for the city.”
Several Garden State officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, have called the new tolls a mistake.
“This plan is a tax on New Jersey families meant to force New Jerseyans to pay for MTA upgrades — all without getting a cent back for NJ TRANSIT,” said Sherrill, who along with Gottheimer is running to replace Murphy next year.
“Make no mistake: New Jersey will not sit back and take it quietly as New York uses our commuters as a meal ticket for the MTA,” she said.
There are already nearly a dozen lawsuits challenging the pricey plan, which recently cleared a key legislative hurdle and is set to start Jan. 5, CBS said.
Earlier this month, lawyers for the New Jersey governor urged a Newark federal judge to rule on one of the biggest lawsuits aimed at nixing congestion pricing — a plan that Hochul proposed, then paused before the election, then moved ahead on again right afterward.
“I have consistently expressed openness to a form of congestion pricing that meaningfully protects the environment and does not put unfair burdens upon hardworking New Jersey commuters.” Murphy has said about the toll. “Today’s plan woefully fails that test.”