Ed Day, Rockland County Executive
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Contact: Beth Cefalu, |
Statement from County Executive DayRockland County residents face the highest level of transit inequity in the MTA region including a transit desert that forces more than 60% of our residents to drive into the city because they have no other way to get there. You are forcing these residents - which include cops, firefighters, and others – to pay more simply for using their own vehicle to avoid being stranded by the current inadequate transit system. Despite that, Governor Hochul and MTA Chair Janno Lieber made one thing clear Tuesday... that Rockland County commuters continue to be an afterthought in the congestion pricing conversation with much emphasis placed on improving life in New York City, with little regard for the tax-paying members of the MTA outside the city. It is an insult to families who are already struggling to keep up with high gas prices and record-breaking inflation that Governor Kathy Hochul moved this plan forward. Rockland County residents should be exempt from congestion pricing tolls based on our $40 million value gap with the MTA, which no other member of the MTA has, or at minimum be credited for the river crossing tolls we already pay to enter Manhattan, including the George Washington Bridge and the Tappan Zee Bridge, with a discounted rate for entering the congestion pricing zone. |