Hochul’s congestion pricing scam has only one ‘success’ left: Gouging drivers

Gov. Kathy Hochul considers her congestion-pricing scheme a huge success, but the city Health Department just exposed the scam by blowing up one of the main supposed benefits.

“Measured pollution levels were not significantly different because of congestion pricing,” it reported Friday.

A $9 congestion pricing toll sign and camera in Manhattan.

Worse, the activists at South Bronx Unite have published preliminary data suggesting that congestion pricing has worsened air quality in their neighborhood, with added traffic as trucks etc. avoid the tolls.  

That’s exactly what the federal environmental review predicted long before Hochul imposed the $9 (and rising!) tolls— i.e. that overall traffic wouldn’t drop, but only shift from the zone’s ritzy Manhattan nabes into rougher outer-borough areas.

The only “good” it really did was allow Hochul to impose a new tax (under another name) to bail out the MTA without upsetting any of the special interests that feed off the agency — while also winning points with elite car-hating donors.

Of course she’s happy to call it a big “success.”

https://nypost.com/2026/08/19/opinion/hochuls-congestion-pricing-scam-has-only-one-success-left-gouging-drivers/