Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Andrew Hevesi

Assemblyman Hevesi Slams Pricing as Transit “Money Grab”

11:00 AM EST on February 25, 2008

At a Queens Community Board 5 meeting earlier this month, Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi made what may be the first hevesi.jpgattack against congestion pricing based on one of its primary selling points.

The Times Ledger reports:

At the meeting, state Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) slammed Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, which would charge $8 to passenger vehicles and $21 to trucks entering Manhattan below 60th Street.

"This is a money grab to pay for mass transit," he said. "This is not about the environment."

Hear that, Queens subway and bus commuters? Your assemblyman opposes a program that would fund transit because it would fund transit.

In January Hevesi and his colleague Rory Lancman showed up at a Congestion Mitigation Commission hearing just long enough to knock pricing and demand improvements to public transportation, to quote one attendee, "without explaining where the money would come from or why as state legislators they haven't allocated more money to the MTA themselves."

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Ossé: Bedford Ave. Bike Lane is Stuck in DOT’s ‘Community Engagement’ Purgatory

"Over the past couple weeks [the DOT] has been saying that they need to do more community engagement on the issue," the Council member said of the much-discussed project.

March 19, 2024

Cycle of Rage: Council Members Slam DOT for Successful Safety Projects

What do three street safety projects across the city have in common? Hypocrisy by some Council members, that's what.

March 19, 2024

Tuesday’s Headlines: Make America Grate Again Edition

A Sanitation worker made a larger political statement than merely parking illegally. Plus other news.

March 19, 2024
See all posts