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The rush of disgruntled MTA lawyers to the nearest courthouse began as soon as President Trump announced that he was lifting federal approval of congestion pricing. Motorists on both sides of the Hudson and East Rivers, however, are thrilled they can finally see the light at the end of the congestion pricing tunnel, as Trump officially kept his campaign promise to blitz the controversial $9 toll. One of the few good things to happen was to show that Democrats and Republicans in Congress who hated the plan could come together behind a common cause. Two of those representatives, Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY 11) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ 4) appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to laud the end of congestion pricing.
“This was wrong from the very beginning,” Malliotakis told host Larry Mendte. “It was never thought out or planned to actually proportionally shift traffic and make it proportional across the arteries. It was never about that; it was about money, and I’m glad that President Trump kept his word.”
Gottheimer was just as blunt in denouncing the MTA’s revenue-generating scheme. “Not only was this congestion tax whacking families nine dollars a day at a time when we’ve got to get prices down to help people, especially hard working folks who are just trying to make ends meet, but the other piece we’ve always been talking about is this was nothing but a cash grab for New York that was going to do nothing to help the environment; in fact, in northern New Jersey, given the change in traffic patterns, all these people avoiding the congestion tax, you’d get more pollution, which is exactly what we’ve been seeing since they started this.”
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