Courtesy of WRCR.
The New York Post Editorial Board has recommended that the state and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority scrap their plans to move forward with congestion pricing. In an editorial posted online yesterday, the Post said the plan likely “won’t even actually reduce congestion” and “punishing average New Yorkers simply for driving is, quote, ‘insane,’” unquote. Rockland County Executive Ed Day says the county may join others in a lawsuit seeking to stop the plan, which could cost many west-of-Hudson commuters an added $4,000 a year to go into Manhattan below 60th street, or they may do something else…
And now there’s another large influential group joining the legal tussle. CBS News reports the 400,000-member Municipal Labor Council, which includes police, firefighters, EMS responders and sanitation workers, is joining the Staten Island suit. They want their members to be exempt. That’s in addition to the New York City teachers’ union, which is also trying to prevent the congestion pricing plan from launching this spring as the MTA wants. Last month, the teachers joined the Staten Island suit, and last week a bi-partisan group of state lawmakers joined, as well. The MTA says critical improvements to the system can’t be made until the litigation ends.