Only the most credulous will be surprised by the report that Governor Hochul is contemplating bringing back, after the election, the congestion pricing scheme that would toll drivers for the privilege of entering lower Manhattan. It’s barely a silver lining in this cloud that Mrs. Hochul, the New York Post reports, aims to sock drivers for less than the $15 a car that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had hoped to extort.Plus, too, Mrs. Hochul might waive the toll for city employees, like teachers and police officers, who were among the most vocal critics of the tolling plan. If the Post’s report is true — and we have no reason to doubt it — the governor’s about-face reflects a defeat for the regional economy, and anyone who plans to visit or do business at lower Manhattan, and a victory for the MTA, which wants the toll money to salve its own inability to manage its finances.It’s a win, too, for anti-automobile eco-militants who have taken up the so-called congestion tolls as a kind of sacred cause and a panacea for various ills plaguing the metropolis — whether curbing traffic, purifying the air, or even, as the MTA claims with a straight face, saving lives by preventing ambulance delays. The reality, though, is that the tolls — meant to generate $1 billion a year in revenues — are a money grab meant to cover the MTA’s poor management.It’s galling that the tolls wouldn’t be necessary if the MTA could get its fiscal act together. For starters, it could enforce the rules against fare evasion, which costs the agency $690 million a year. The MTA could also take a hard look at its bloated labor payroll, including outmoded work practices, like using conductors on subway trains, that cost hundreds of millions a year — not to mention its soaring overtime costs, a symptom of mismanagement.The MTA, unabashed by its own fiscal disorder, responded to Mrs. Hochul’s decision to shelve the toll plan with a squeeze play befitting the agency’s unaccountability to voters — punishing New Yorkers. The MTA halted work on at least two rail construction projects — including work to make stations more accessible to the handicapped — in a ham-fisted effort to “put pressure on” Mrs. Hochul, the Post reported.At the time, these columns hailed Mrs. Hochul for holding fast against the so-called transit advocates and the MTA pressure campaign because of her own appraisal of what New Yorkers think. Her “interactions with business owners and diner patrons” gave her “a real pulse” on what voters believe, the Times reported, and she urged backers of the tolls to “go to the next diner with me,” to “sit with me and watch the people come over and thank me.”What a difference a few weeks make. Today, the tolls are as unpopular as ever — opposed by some 59 percent of New Yorkers, who want the scheme to be deep-sixed permanently, according to a Siena College poll last week — yet the governor appears to be wavering. Does she really think voters will be any less irate if the toll is, say, $9, as the MTA had previously suggested as a lower-priced option, as opposed to the $15 that was eventually chosen?There are grounds for skepticism on that head — especially considering that the tolls would be paid largely by responsible, hard-working citizens to, in effect, subsidize the MTA’s profligacy, mismanagement, and unwillingness to police turnstile jumpers. The idea of taxing residents and visitors of the New York region to enter lower Manhattan — which needs all the business, commuters, and tourists it can get — is one that rankles at any price.
