This year the ideological driven effort to toll our East River Bridges – Congestion Pricing under former Mayor Bloomberg; repackaged as the Move New York Fare Plan promoted by Gridlock Sam – became “Zone Pricing” in Fix NYC’s report.

Let's Look at the Record:

This latest toll-tax asks city residents to bear a cost nearly $12 ($11.52) per day. It creates two New Yorks, hurts the vulnerable and assaults small business and working-class people in the boroughs outside Manhattan and above 60th Street. All this to increase traffic speeds by about one-half mile per hour!

Zone Pricing applies Orwellian language to hide imposing tolls on the City’s free East River bridges. Regressive toll-taxes fails to relieve congestion, achieve no sustainable revenues, and hurts the economy. It ignores that primarily middle and working-class drivers already pay registration fees and surcharges, gas taxes and sales taxes on repairs and purchases. NYC’s central business district (“CBD”) includes residential as well as businesses. If tolls cause drivers to dump their car, no room exists in already crowded subways.

The tolling proponents – social engineers who would couple funding our subways and buses (and rail) with ideological anti-car schemes – seek to impose their ill-advised economically devastating social agenda without regard for economic impacts. The Queens Chamber of Commerce opposes tolls on free bridges as bad for small business.

The City can support public transit by charging higher fees for closing its streets for private construction (current fees make rent control look pricey), raising more than one-half billion dollars. Please view some sensible revenue options the state- can approve and reports on tolling’s economic impacts at keepnycfree.com.

*Corey Bearak, Senior Advisor for the coalition Keep NYC (Congestion Tax) Free which led the way against the Bloomberg and Ravitch schemes and points out the unfair nature of toll tax schemes, was president of Queens Civic Congress from 2008-2010.