How New York’s congestion pricing plan went from admiration to desperation

New York state’s congestion pricing plan to shore up the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s finances began to take shape in 2019 and was passed into law that year. After years of planning, community outreach and federal approval, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on June 27, 2023, that the state would implement the plan. “Congestion pricing will reduce traffic in our crowded downtown, improve air quality and provide critical resources to the MTA,” she said in a statement.

One year later, Hochul declared an indefinite halt to implementing the tolling program June 5, less than a month before it was scheduled to begin on June 30. The order threw a wrench into the MTA’s capital investment plans, and the state’s comptroller recently warned that the transit agency “must find billions in new funds.” Read below for the recent history and status of what would have been the nation’s first congestion pricing program.