Democrat-Run NYC Begins Slugging Drivers with Punitive Congestion Tax

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

New York’s punitive $9 tax penalty on drivers entering Manhattan began Sunday, defying a flurry of a last-minute legal challenges in a move that has already drawn the ire of President-elect Donald Trump.

Commuters from other states and boroughs already pay around $15 in bridge and tunnel tolls — and the congestion fee will come on top of that.

Passenger vehicles now entering the “congestion relief zone” in Manhattan, defined as local streets and avenues at or below 60th Street, will be charged the $9 toll during peak hours.

The tolls will apply at four tunnels leading into the Big Apple — the Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and Queens Midtown Tunnel.

Officially bestowed with the benign title of “congestion pricing,” the tolling is designed to reduce traffic gridlock in the densely packed city while pushing drivers to abandon their cars and take public transit alternatives including the city’s much-maligned subway.

“We’ve been studying this issue for five years. And it only takes about five minutes if you’re in midtown Manhattan to see that New York has a real traffic problem,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and CEO Janno Lieber told reporters late Friday after a court hearing cleared the way for the tolls.

“We need to make it easier for people who choose to drive, or who have to drive, to get around the city.”

The cost to drivers depends on what time of the day it is and if drivers have an E-ZPass, AP reports.

Most drivers with E-ZPasses will get dinged the $9 fee to enter Manhattan south of Central Park on weekdays between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. and on weekends between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. During off hours, the toll will be $2.25.

Somebody is watching your every move … E-ZPass readers and license plate-scanning cameras over Broadway at Columbus Circle in New York, US, on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Republican President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to kill the program when he takes office.

In November, Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower is in the toll zone, said congestion pricing “will put New York City at a disadvantage over competing cities and states, and businesses will flee.”

“Not only is this a massive tax to people coming in, it is extremely inconvenient from both driving and personal booking keeping standards,” he said in a statement. “It will be virtually impossible for New York City to come back as long as the congestion tax is in effect.”