Ex-Rep. Mondaire Jones’ endorsement of congestion pricing to enter and leave Manhattan’s midtown business district could haunt his comeback bid.
The progressive Democrat is running for his old congressional seat in Rockland/Hudson Valley’s 17tth congressional district — where there’s stiff opposition from drivers paying significantly higher tolls to traverse Midtown south of 60th Street during peak hours.
But last year after redistricting, Jones ran in the more liberal 10th CD in lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn instead of seeking re-election in the driver-reliant 17th CD — and embraced congestion pricing.
He lost in the Democratic primary to Rep. Dan Goldman.
“In terms of my personal policy preference, it is for congestion pricing,” Jones said during the August 10, 2022, NY1/Spectrum News debate.
“At the local level, we need to be doing congestion pricing, it is long overdue.”
Jones’ primary Democratic opponent Liz Whitmer Gereghty and Republican incumbent Rep. Michael Lawler are now eager to make him eat his own words.
“This is about leadership, clarity and consistency for NY-17 and my position is clear,” Whitmer Gereghty, the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, told the Post Sunday. “The congestion pricing plan is unfair to commuters in the Lower Hudson Valley, especially those in Rockland County who have no access to a one-seat-ride to the city and are already tolled on the George Washington Bridge and the Tappan Zee.”
“We all agree that we need to fund mass transit and protect our environment, but the current plan disproportionately hurts Westchester and Rockland commuters.”
Lawler, an early congestion pricing opponent, was more bluntly critical.
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“This is just another example of how completely out-of-touch Mondaire Jones is with Hudson Valley taxpayers,” Lawler said in a statement Sunday. “I have led the fight against this absurd, $5,000-a-year, commuter tax, and have been joined by an overwhelming number of Democrats and Republicans representing our region.”.
“But instead of pushing back on this outrageous cash grab, Mondaire sides with the corrupt MTA and New York City politicians who can never get enough of our hard-earned money. Mondaire should have stayed in Brooklyn and ran there again; he certainly represents their values a lot more than he does ours.”
The Biden Administration last month granted final approval to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s congestion pricing program, the final step needed to create the special toll pricing system. including what tolls to charge and which drivers will receive exemptions
The plan, which will charge higher tolls during peak hours to help curb congestion and provide exemptions, has the strong backing of Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The MTA has yet to set the exact toll amount but has signaled it’ll range between $9 and $23 per day to drive a car into Manhattan’s central business district. The pricing system could be installed in spring 2024.
A federal review found the higher tolls could slash the number of cars driving on local streets in that district by as much as 60%.
The program is expected to generate some $1 billion in revenue annually for the MTA, which the transit agency will issue bonds against to raise $15 billion for repairs.
But New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has lawyered up, and is itching to file a lawsuit to block the contentious pricing plan, claiming it’s unfair to Garden State commuters.
“I do not support congestion pricing for residents of the lower Hudson Valley. In that 2022 debate, I qualified my comments on congestion pricing by saying that there must be exemptions for communities without adequate transportation infrastructure. I was thinking of the lower Hudson Valley, where in Rockland we don’t have a one-seat train ride into the city and where across the river we don’t have Metro-North access to Penn Station,” Jones said.
“Whereas I passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law bringing billions of dollars to New York State to fix these problems, Lawler voted to gut transportation funding in April.”
