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Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman warned New York voters that congestion pricing could come to a “community near you” if Gov. Kathy Hochul wins reelection
Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, vowed to kill the program outright if he beats the Democratic incumbent in the Nov. 3 election as he claimed Hochul could have a menu of new taxes she could unleash if she secures another term.
“Doesn’t matter whether it’s New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton or any town in between,” Blakeman claimed while speaking on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan Tuesday.
“If you live in Brooklyn, Flatbush Avenue. If you live in Queens, Queens Boulevard, Northern Boulevard. If you live in the Bronx, Tremont Avenue. Staten Island, the Staten Island Expressway — congestion pricing will come to you if Kathy Hochul is reelected,” he told The Post. “I will stop that as governor.
“That’s a way for them to raise more money because they don’t know how to run a large organization,” he said of Hochul and city Mayor Zohran Mamdani while calling congestion pricing “nothing more than a tax on the middle class.”
“Our budget in the state of New York is twice the size of the State of Florida and there’s 4 million more people in Florida,” Blakeman said, echoing a September Citizens Budget Commission report that found New Yorkers paid the highest tax burden per-person in the entire country.
“We don’t have a revenue problem in New York state, we’ve got a spending problem,” he said.
Blakeman was speaking on Fifth Avenue and East 62nd Street, just below one of the congestion toll cameras that charges drivers $9 every time they pass into Midtown Manhattan — and the streets were packed with traffic the congestion pricing was supposed to reduce.
“You can look here. I don’t think it’s reduced traffic at all,” he said. “I think that what you’re seeing here is traffic congestion.”
Killing congestion pricing has been one of the mainstays of Blakeman’s campaign, where he’s hammered Hochul for New York’s ongoing affordability crunch. Hochul infamously paused the implementation of a congestion toll to enter Midtown Manhattan ahead of the 2024 election as Democrats feared backlash would hurt them at the polls..
Hochul then quickly unleashed the toll, which costs drivers a minimum of $9, days after the ballots had been cast.
President Trump previously tried to end congestion pricing after it was rolled out in 2025, but a judge ruled he didn’t have the unilateral power to rescind it.
Blakeman would likely be well-positioned if he took office while Trump was in the White House — as a suspension would require an agreement between the New York governor and the US Department of Transportation.
The Republican insisted he would still alleviate congestion with the toll stripped away, promising to increase subway safety and staffing to support the train systems and crackdown on fared dodging — which cost the MTA upwards of $1 billion in 2024.
“The way to reduce traffic congestion is to make cleaner and safer train stations and subway stations, cleaner buses,” Blakeman said. “Put more conductors on our trains and subways. Put more police officers and our subway stations. That will get riders back.”
Hochul disputed Blakeman’s take on congestion pricing and plans for city infrastructure, comparing him to Trump.
“In Bruce Blakeman and Donald Trump’s version of New York, it’s more expensive and impossible to get anywhere, gas prices are at record highs, and the LIRR gets defunded when you try to get around Blakeman’s own county,” a Hochul spokesperson said.
“While Governor Hochul is making our subways safer, investing billions into public safety, and funding public transit that helps New Yorkers get to work, get their kids to school, and get home, Bruce Blakeman is once again taking Trump’s side instead of standing up for New York.”