By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2025-01-31 15:11:14 | Updated at 2025-01-31 18:07:21
2 hours ago
Former New Jersey Gov. Christie has some advice for how the Garden State can fight congestion pricing: cut millions of dollars in funding for New York projects.
Christie said Gov. Phil Murphy should use his influence at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to block funding for ongoing renovations at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in the city — until New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority give Jersey commuters a break.
“Those are important projects to New York,” Christie told The Post Thursday. “You want to have congestion pricing? We’re going to stop these projects until New Jersey gets a better deal.”
The PA is jointly run by appointees of the governors of both states and oversees the region’s airports, sea ports, Hudson River Crossings, and Midtown bus terminal.
Christie said the agency could be used as leverage to negotiate a better deal for Garden State drivers who are essentially paying a double toll to enter Manhattan — both at the Lincoln or Holland tunnels and upon entering the Manhattan congestion zone south of 60th Street. New Jersey motorists get a $3 credit off the $9 congestion toll, which will balloon to $15 in the coming years.
“This is a much bigger problem for New Jersey,” he added, noting traffic may be diverted from the city into the Garden State. “New York is going to continue to raise the tolls. This is a New Jersey problem that has to be fixed.”
Christie said Jersey drivers should at least get a bigger credit on the toll, or Murphy could negotiate to split some of the revenues from the fee to benefit NJ Transit. Revenue from the congestion pricing plan is now used to help fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs New York’s buses, subways and rail lines east of the Hudson.
“I would have done it differently. I would have done it a long time ago,” Christie said, outlining that he would have pulled funding for New York projects ahead of the toll’s Jan. 5 rollout.
But it’s not too late, Christie added.
“It’s a tool that’s always available to the New Jersey governor,” he said. “There’s nothing that precludes him [Murphy] from doing it now.”
Christie had held up funding for a New York project that was part of the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site when he fought to upgrade the Bayonne Bridge to accommodate larger ships crossing underneath it.
A spokesman for Democratic Hochul brushed off Christie’s suggested power play, and referenced the Christie administration’s infamous “Bridgegate” scandal.
Allies of Christie took action to create traffic jams Fort Lee, NJ leading to the George Washington Bridge — in a scheme to punish the borough’s Democratic Mayor Sokolich for refusing to endorse Christie’s 2013 re-election.
Christie, a Republican, denied knowing about the plan to close lanes to the bridge, but it damaged him politically when he ran for president.
“Not surprising to see Chris Christie opposing a plan to reduce traffic, given his widely-known attempts to cause some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Hochul spokesman Avi Small said.
Murphy, a Democrat, declined to comment on Christie’s advice.
Murphy opposes the congestion toll and has filed a federal lawsuit to block it and even appealed to President Trump to rescind it.
He also is offering New York firms generous grants to allow Jersey commuters to work in the Garden State instead of driving into Manhattan to pay more tolls.
Denying the release of funds at the PA could become a divisive game, leading to retaliation from New York officials allied with Hochul to stall funding for Jersey projects.
New Jersey has high priorities in projects run or overseen by the PA — including the PATH train that connects to Manhattan, Newark Airport and construction of a new bus terminal in Times Square that largely serves New Jersey commuters.
