Yonkers Insider: MTA: Gov. Hochul Just Proved the Sky Isn't Falling.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: STATEMENT PRAISING GOVERNOR HOCHUL FOR FINDING ALTERNATE REVENUE STREAM FOR SECOND AVENUE SUBWAY WORK BY KEEP NYC CONGESTION TAX FREE.

July 30, 2024.

 

“Governor Kathy Hochul just proved the sky isn’t falling by finding $54 million dollars to continue work on the Second Avenue Subway. We commend the Governor for her resourcefulness.

 

“Ever since Governor Hochul bravely canceled the regressive, inequitable, unfair and unsustainable congestion toll-tax scheme, radical, anti-automobile activists have engaged in a hysteria campaign, promoting outrageous hyperbolic predictions in the news media about the end of mass transit as we know it. It’s a lie. New York City and State have managed to run our transit system for more than 120 years, without a nickel from a Congestion Pricing Tax.

 

“The astroturf lawsuits filed by some of these ideological mercenaries are nothing more than attention-grabbing attempts to advance a car-free vision financed by a handful of hedge-fund Utopians. Rather than propose solutions to fund mass transit, these toll-taxers continue to spread false narratives of a MTA doomsday. They held publicity stunts including delivering hundreds of toy cars to the Governor’s midtown office and deliberately tried to mislead the public by illegally posting fake service change notices on subway platforms over the 4th of July weekend.

 

“Day after day, the mercenaries for these hedge-funder financed groups blame transit woes on the ‘pause.’ They continue to press for the toll-tax scheme with a variety of hard-core tactics and demonstrations — and now lawsuits — without any basis in law.

 

“Fortunately, the Governor has kept her promise to cash-strapped New Yorkers to halt the $15 tax, while finding available monies elsewhere. There are plenty of resources in this state. The key is spending them wisely.”

 

Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free, a diverse coalition of civic, business, and labor organizations and businesses throughout New York City, argues that implementing a tax on vehicles traveling south of 6oth Street in Manhattan will, among other things, permanently damage efforts to revitalize the two districts.