Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued another round of funding threats against New York state Monday — while once again rollling back a supposed deadline for the end of congestion pricing.
In a letter to Gov. Hochul Monday, Duffy set his third in a row of seemingly toothless deadlines, telling the state to end the congestion toll by May 21.
“The federal government sends billions to New York — but we won’t foot the bill if Governor Hochul continues to implement an illegal toll to backfill the budget of New York’s failing transit system,” Duffy said. “We are giving New York one last chance to turn back or prove their actions are not illegal.”
If the toll persists beyond May 21, Duffy said, his department will not authorize federal funds for any highway project in Manhattan, will refuse to approve Manhattan projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, and will refuse to greenlight any funding amendments from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council — unless any of those projects involve safety.
Should New York’s “noncompliance” continue, he threatened, they’ll defund projects citywide.
The threats come as the latest swipe in a showdown about federal authority over the state law — specifically New York’s congestion pricing law, which Duffy continues to assert he can end.
Duffy first claimed to be able to revoke an already-granted federal authorization in February, weeks after New York began tolling drivers who entered Midtown and lower Manhattan in an implementation of the state’s 2019 Traffic Mobility Act, which required the toll as a means of funding a specific list of MTA transit projects.
The MTA promptly sued, calling the revocation unconstitutional. Hochul agreed, likened Trump to a king, and said the toll would remain in effect absent a court order.
In response, Duffy set a March 21 deadline for ending the toll. The transportation secretary then extended the deadline to April 20, before extending it again on Monday to May 21.
Meanwhile, the MTA’s suit over the constitutionality of Duffy’s order continues to work its way through Manhattan federal court, where lawyers for the feds said earlier this month they are “still evaluating what DOT’s options are” should New York keep the toll in place.
Duffy has called the toll — which charges most drivers $9 once a day to enter the congestion zone — “class warfare.”
While he acknowledged in his letter to Hochul that federal law allows tolls “to be used for transit projects,” he added “it is unconscionable as a matter of policy that highway users are being forced to bail out the MTA transit system.”
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