Gov. Hochul held a jubilant press conference on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of congestion pricing. "In just one year, congestion pricing has been an unprecedented success in New York," she said amid dozens of cheering supporters in Manhattan. "By every measure, this program has met or exceeded expectations: traffic and gridlock are down substantially, people are moving faster, air quality is improved, streets are safer and our economy is stronger."
Hochul's statement was once unthinkable. Eighteen months ago, in the summer of 2024, the state executive from Buffalo shocked and enraged a phalanx of transit advocates, climate activists, civic boosters and everyday New Yorkers when she suddenly and indefinitely paused the long-awaited commencement of congestion pricing in New York City.
Her subsequent tactics — inviting critics to speak with diner patrons who hated the toll, claiming hundreds of hotel caterers clapped for her decision to pause it, lobbying legislators in Albany to pass a replacement tax — further dismayed her once-steadfast supporters.
But then, just days after Donald Trump won back the White House, Hochul reinstated the toll at a lower price. And now she's again its biggest booster.
How did the state executive from Buffalo arrive at this point? It's been a long rollercoaster ride ...
The early era
Hochul entered state politics around the same time the current congestion pricing program took shape. But as the legislation gestated in Albany, the future governor never publicized her opinion about it.
Streetsblog could not find a single instance of Hochul discussing congestion pricing between 2007 and 2019, when she served as county clerk of Erie County, a member of Congress, and lieutenant governor to Andrew Cuomo, who muscled the toll through the legislature.
Even five days after Cuomo resigned, in August 2021, Hochul’s spokesperson told the New York Times that the governor hadn’t decided whether to support the program because "the pace and timing is something she will need to evaluate further given the constantly changing impact of Covid-19 on commuters."
The happy years
In January 2022, Hochul delivered her first "State of the State" address as governor. Though her speech omitted any mention of congestion pricing, her staff distributed an accompanying 236-page book that described her policy stances in detail. Here’s the relevant passage, on page 111:
Gov. Hochul strongly supports congestion pricing for New York and is committed to making it a reality. Congestion pricing [is] a means of reducing traffic and also creating much needed revenue for the entire public transportation system. That sustainability — both environmental and financial — is needed now more than ever.
Congestion pricing has the potential to improve access to jobs across the metro area, protect our environment from vehicle emissions, save New Yorkers time in traffic, and support economic growth far into the future.
She was still on board in May 2023, when the Biden administration approved New York's environmental review of congestion pricing. Her spokesperson told Politico: "Gov. Hochul is committed to implementing congestion pricing to reduce traffic, improve air quality, and support our public transit system. We’ve worked closely with partners across government and with community members over the last four years to develop a plan that will achieve these goals."
Over the next few months, she would continue to praise the toll in one press release after another.
And in early December 2023, Hochul rallied in Union Square to bolster congestion pricing in the face of the recommendation of the toll's final cost structure by the MTA's Traffic Mobility Review Board.
Hochul's remarks at that rally, reproduced in full here, constituted her most detailed comments about congestion pricing to date. Here are some excerpts:
From time to time, leaders are called upon to envision a better future, be bold in the implementation and execution, and be undaunted by the opposition. That's how you secure progress. That's what today is all about.
And:
Anybody sick and tired of gridlock in New York City? Anybody think we deserve better transit, especially those who live and work here? Anyone think that people with disabilities deserve to have more accessibility when they travel through this city? Anybody want cleaner air for our kids and for future generations? Well then you love congestion pricing, right?
And:
Cities all around the world have tried this, but nobody else in the United States of America. This is when we demonstrate leadership. We show we do it here. We overcome the opposition. We make it be successful. And the rest of America will realize that we are fighting to save our planet, we're fighting to save our kids, we're fighting for our riders, and we are fighting for the greatest city on the planet, the City of New York!
The next day, after the MTA board approved the tolling structure with a base rate of $15, Hochul issued a brief, but telling press release that touted her role in getting the MTA to set the toll at 35 percent lower than the $23 maximum allowed under the law that created the toll in the first place.
Was there a chink in Hochul's armor of support for the toll? If so, few noted at the time that Hochul was clearly taking credit for lowering the cost of the toll. But she still appeared fully on board.
On May 20, 2024 — just 40 days before congestion pricing was scheduled to go into effect — Hochul spoke at the annual Global Economic Summit in Killarney, Ireland. Her prepared remarks were again a full-throated support for the toll.
Starting next month, New York City will become the first city in the U.S. to implement congestion pricing. ... London, Milan, Stockholm, and Singapore have all implemented similar plans with great success. In New York City, the idea stalled for 60 years until we got it done earlier this year. It took a long time because people feared backlash from drivers set in their ways. But, much like with housing, if we’re serious about making cities more livable, we must get over that.
It was the last time Hochul mentioned congestion pricing before reporters began to hear troubling murmurs about her plans for the toll.
Four days later, on May 24, Donald Trump vowed to end congestion pricing if he were re-elected president — and admitted to sandbagging the program while he was president between 2017 and 2021: “'Congestion Pricing' is a disaster for NYC. I stopped it for years at the Federal level, but Crooked Joe railroaded it through. A massive business killer and tax on New Yorkers, and anyone going into Manhattan. I will TERMINATE Congestion Pricing in my FIRST WEEK back in Office!!! Manhattan is looking for business, not looking to kill business!"
The dark age
D-Day was June 4, 2024, when Politico reported that Hochul was "considering delaying the state’s pending congestion pricing plan, out of concern that its June 30 implementation would hurt Democrats in competitive House races this year." The website cited "three people familiar with her thinking" and said Hochul's team had "recently begun signaling their worries," partly in response to the efforts of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn).
Hochul confirmed the pause the next day in a video statement that focused on the price of congestion pricing. "A $15 charge may not mean a lot to someone who has the means, but it can break the budget of a working- or middle-class household," she said. The statement also mentioned her fear of inhibiting Manhattan's economic recovery: "The idea behind congestion pricing is that it will encourage many current drivers to shift to public transit. But ... drivers can now choose to stay home altogether, telling employers they need to work fully remote again." She promised to "tackle congestion in other ways" without further elaboration.
Before the day ended, sources close to Hochul and New York Democrats began providing details to reporters. "This was really a political decision," one told Politico. "We’re in the final weeks before the primary and the Legislature is wrapping up its session. It looks political now, and it didn’t need to be that way."
Another told the Daily News that Hochul's decision followed "months" of concern. "Hochul has voiced frustration for months that the congestion pricing plan was a relic of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo — and that she never felt it was structured correctly," reported the paper, whose source added: "She finally got sick of it and decided blowing it up is easier."
On June 7 — the last day of the legislative session in Albany — Hochul reiterated her concerns about the toll's price in a short speech in the State Capitol:
My job is not to make it harder or more expensive for New Yorkers to live in our state – working hard, make ends meet, raise their families ... and the closer we got to the June 30 implementation date, I heard from more and more anxious New Yorkers that this would be a real hardship for them. Working- and middle-class families who can't afford an additional $15 a day toll when they're simply trying to go to their jobs. ...
Leaders have to be willing to do what's right, regardless of the political headwinds, and stand up for the voices that are not being heard. So, yes, I put congestion pricing on pause. Because, when it comes down to it, I'll always stand on the side of hardworking New Yorkers.
The governor also fielded questions from reporters for the first time since she announced the pause, which led to the following exchange:
Reporter: Governor, I mean this with all due respect, but how stupid do you think New Yorkers have to be to believe that this congestion pricing decision wasn't politically motivated?
Hochul: I will never think the voters and constituents of New York are stupid. Those are your words — never mine. I encourage you to go to the next diner with me. I'll probably be there Monday morning. Sit with me, and watch the people come over and thank me. That's all I need to know. That is all I need to know. And if they were saying, we love the idea of paying more money to come to this diner because I live in another borough and I'm not taking the subway today — I haven't heard anyone say that. I have not heard a single small business owner say, I'm really looking forward to my New Jersey customers — the hardware store that was featured in the news a couple day ago — the owner who says, it's going to increase the cost of deliveries, I'm going to have to pass it on to my constituents, and my New Jersey customers are already saying they're not going to come — that's real stress and real pain, and that is all that matters to me.
That speech prompted Streetsblog to go to the diner:
A new dawn
On Nov. 14, 2024 — more than five months after she paused congestion pricing, and nine days after Donald Trump recaptured the White House — Hochul reversed herself once more and announced that congestion pricing would go forward, this time with an even lower price point of $9.
In a press release, Hochul said: "The $15 toll was just too high in this economic climate. That’s why our plan cuts the daytime toll to $9 for cars. By getting congestion pricing underway and fully supporting the MTA capital plan, we’ll unclog our streets, reduce pollution and deliver better public transit for millions of New Yorkers."
Following her prior pattern, Hochul's office published two press releases containing statements of praise — but this time from elected officials and advocates who supported congestion pricing.
Congestion pricing finally took effect on Jan. 5, 2025.
President Trump has tried multiple times to "kill" congestion pricing — but he's been unable to because, at least up to now, courts haven't ruled in his favor, as Streetsblog has shown.
Trump also has posted several gloating messages on social media. "CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD," he wrote on Truth Social. "Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!" On X, the White House published an illustration of Trump wearing a crown.
Hochul issued a blistering response: "This is an attack on our sovereign identity, our independence from Washington. We are not subservient to a king or anyone else out of Washington. The commuters of our city and our region are now the roadkill on Donald Trump's revenge tour against New York."
"The cameras are staying on," she wrote on X.
The cameras are staying on.
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) February 19, 2025
Two days later, Hochul visited Washington to persuade Trump about the merits of congestion pricing, bearing a brightly-colored pamphlet called "New York: Fast, Strong, Beautiful" that played up the program's advantages. She later told reporters that "I did my very best" and "the fight's not over."
On March 20 — one day before Trump's deadline for New York to kill congestion pricing — Duffy extended the deadline for another thirty days. The next day, Hochul published a press release championing the program. “Traffic is down and business is up – and that’s the kind of progress we’re going to keep delivering for New Yorkers,” the governor said. “Every day, more New Yorkers are seeing and hearing the benefits for our commutes, quality of life and economy – and we’re not going back.”
The one-year anniversary
On Jan. 5, 2026, Hochul held a press conference in Manhattan to mark the first birthday of congestion pricing. When Streetsblog reporter Dave Colon asked about the evolution of her views toward the toll, she offered a new defense of her pause and price cut:
I wanted to find a path forward at a time when we knew that the number one concern that people had in our state was affordability. ...
I found that price point, and I think that's one of the reasons why there's less opposition to it from people who are paying that, because they're still getting the same benefit.
She's wrong about the "same" benefit — a higher toll would have reduced congestion even more. But maybe she's right about the public opinion; polls are trending in the right direction. For now, congestion pricing is more popular than Donald Trump.
