Press Releases

Yesterday, Representatives Mike Lawler (R-NY-17) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ-05) joined Julio Pena, owner of restaurant Il Posto Accanto, a 25-year New York City restaurant, to highlight the devastating impact New York’s new $15-a-day Congestion Tax will have on small businesses, commuters, and families. 

“At a time when New Yorkers are struggling to make ends meet and can barely afford to live here, Governor Hochul has enacted an outrageous cash grab, stealing hundreds of millions from suburban commuters to fund the MTA’s bloated and mismanaged operations. This regressive tax will punish working class and middle class New Yorkers, while also hurting businesses and workers in New York City who are struggling to make ends meet,” said Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17), co-chair of the Anti-Congestion Tax Caucus. “I’m proud to be working in a bipartisan fashion with Congressman Gottheimer to fight to put a stop to Hochul and the MTA’s congestion pricing cash grab.”

“It’s a slap in the face to every single hardworking small business owner and employee who just wants to put food on the table for their families. If I were a New York City business owner — small, medium, or large — I would call Governor Hochul today and demand she clean house at the MTA,” said Congressman Gottheimer, co-chair of the Anti-Congestion Tax Caucus. “Because of MTA Chairman Janno Lieber’s Congestion Tax, families will be priced out of coming to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, walking past Macy’s store front windows, or coming to dinner at Il Posto. Janno ‘Scrooge’ Lieber is putting coal in everyone’s stockings this year with his $15-a-day Congestion Tax.”

“As a small businessman, my wife and I have been running this business on this block since 1995. Whatever has come our way, Sandy, 9/11, anything and everything, the community has all rallied around. But after Covid and the difficulties we went through with that, to have Congestion Pricing shoved down our throats it’s going to be a death blow. It’s going to be a death blow to small businesses like ours and our customers will think twice about coming into the city from Jersey or Long Island, or Westchester — or even from the Upper East Side or Upper West Side,” said Julio Pena, co-owner of local small business Il Posto Accanto Restaurant. “It also going to hit us over the head with our vendors. We get at least 10 deliveries a day… they’re going to hit us with a fee. It’s just a money grab as far as we’re concerned.”

Negative Effects of New York’s $15/Day Congestion Tax

• The $15 Congestion Tax, on top of the existing tolls, gas, and parking, will drive many of Il Posto’s customers, including tourists and Jersey commuters, away from the city, decimating their small business.

• Hudson Valley commuters will have to pay up to $5,000 a year in new fees just to get to work.

• Restaurants will be charged new fees for deliveries because trucks will have to pay the Congestion Tax every day. That cost will be passed down to the small business owners and customers.

• Hudson Valley commuters and families will be priced out of coming to New York City for a meal, seeing the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, walking past Macy’s store front windows, or huddling together with hot chocolate while watching the light show on Fifth Avenue.

• The Congestion Tax will increase carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, and even formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, into the Hudson Valley and North Jersey.

• Hardworking New York and New Jersey families will soon face a $15 dollar a day — nearly $4,000 a year — Congestion Tax just to drive to work or visit south of 60th street in New York City. That’s on top of the $17 dollar tolls Jersey drivers pay a day already.