ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office finally revealed Wednesday how much she coughed up in New York City congestion pricing tolls, after being pressed by The Post on her agreement with the MTA to pay the controversial fee.
The Democratic governor’s state police detail racked up $1,019 worth of congestion tolls when driving into Manhattan below 60th Street last year, her office said.
State vehicles, like those that typically ferry the gov around New York, are exempt from the congestion tax — but MTA Communications Director Tim Minton told The Post last year that Hochul had agreed to compensate the agency $9 for each time she drives into the city tolling zone.
But when MTA CEO Janno Lieber was grilled about the agreement during a budget hearing in Albany Tuesday, he couldn’t say how much she had shelled out for 2025, the first years the tolls were in effect.
“Governor Hochul keeps her promises,” her spokesman Sean Butler finally told The Post in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, after repeated requests.
“That’s why, in addition to securing full funding for the MTA’s capital plan last year, she sent the agency $1,019 in assessed congestion pricing charges from 2025 on February 1st to support critical upgrades to our transit system as she said she would,” Butler said.
The $1,019 accounts for each trip Hochul’s security detail took into and out of the congestion pricing zone during that time frame, accounting for the $9 toll during peak hours and $2.25 overnight.
That would mean Hochul drove into the zone at least 113 times last year, or at least twice a week.
Lieber had appeared miffed during the hearing when pressed by Long Island Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Nassau) over whether Hochul had followed through.
“We’ll have to get back to you. We haven’t checked that,” he said, while noting that his own police detail does pay the tolls.
“It’s disappointing the MTA chair couldn’t answer whether or not the Governor has kept her congestion pricing promise,” Ra told The Post after.
“A thorough, independent review of MTA’s books might shed some light on this and other important fiscal information.”
