Cuomo Mulls Fee for Drivers to Enter Manhattan

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is putting together a proposal to charge motorists more for entering the most congested parts of Manhattan, a plan suggested by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg which fell apart several years ago under opposition in Albany.

The proposal would impose congestion pricing, an idea increasingly popular around the globe that aims to discourage vehicular traffic in dense urban areas while also raising money for mass transit.

The Democrat hasn’t released any details yet, but said it would be substantially different from Bloomberg’s proposal. Any congestion pricing plan will likely face big political challenges, especially from representatives of the city’s outer boroughs and the suburbs.

“Congestion pricing is an idea whose time has come,” Cuomo told The New York Times.

City and state officials are considering several approaches to fixing the city’s beleaguered transit system, now beset by mounting delays, outages and other problems. Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed taxing the wealthy and transferring the money to poor people to afford the fare.

The mayor has pushed back when asked about congestion pricing, adding last week that “these proposals to-date never had any political viability.”

“I’ve never been in favor of those proposals because I haven’t seen one that I thought was fair particularly to folks in the outer boroughs,” he said.

Cuomo’s plan is likely to be rolled out on January of next year.