By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-19 22:47:56 | Updated at 2024-11-21 18:03:54
1 day ago
Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday hailed Gov. Kathy Hochul for resurrecting the city’s hated congestion pricing plan — and insisted the Big Apple is safe from potential blowback by President-elect Donald Trump.
“When you’re a leader, you make tough decisions,” Adams said of Hochul’s revival of the wildly unpopular new commuter tax — which Trump has already vowed to “terminate” in his first week in the White House.
Under the plan, which the Democratic governor paused before the November election — then announced it was back on the table barely a week afterward — cars entering Manhattan below 60th Street will be charged a $9 toll starting next year.
The toll will jump to $12 by 2028 and spike to the originally planned $15 after 2031.
Trump has also maligned the plan by calling it a “business killer.”
The Republican New Yorker and Hochul have been sharply at odds about various issues over the years.
Still, the pair had a warm phone call after Trump won the Nov. 5 election over Dem Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the phone chat, the pols touched on the city’s deteriorating transit infrastructure, and Trump expressed interest on working together with Hochul on fixing up Penn Station and the subways according to sources.
He has publicly insisted he has the utmost respect for the Democrat.
onPresident-elect Donald Trump has vowed to “terminate” the controversial commuter tax. Zuffa LLCHochul has the power to pardon Trump over his May conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal reimbursement of 2016 hush-money payments.
Despite the glaring disconnect between Hochul and Trump on congestion pricing, Adams claimed Tuesday that there won’t be a repeat of the kind of tensions and undermining that plagued the president-elect’s first administration and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“We weren’t communicating before. We were warring and not working together,” Adams said.
“When I said, ‘Let’s turn down the temperature, and let’s work together for the city of New York,’ all of a sudden we got a different energy.”
Hochul’s camp, asked by The Post whether the governor fears she’ll receive any retribution from Trump over her decision to push ahead with congestion pricing, declined comment.
A Hochul rep, Avi Small, instead referred The Post to the governor’s comments during a Crain’s New York Business and Partnership for NYC Fireside chat Tuesday morning.
“I’m an elected official. I have worked with people across the aisle,” she said when asked about her phone call with Trump.
Hochul said she discussed the “eyesore” that Penn station is and confirmed Trump agreed these “infrastructure projects cannot be ignored.”
Neither Trump’s nor Cuomo’s camp responded to Post requests for comment Tuesday.
