Hailing a ride will be pricier thanks to Albany's budget deal
Get ready to reach deeper into your pockets for that Uber ride in the busiest parts of Manhattan. As part of a new $168.3 billion state budget deal, Albany lawmakers on Friday night agreed to the first congestion surcharge on ride-share and yellow-cab rides below 96th Street. The fee kicks in January 2019.
Me, "We were promised $1.5 billion raised to help the MTA Subways, and Buses. Then we were promised Billions more from Value Capture. Now, with the final budget passed, all we got, was $421 million thru A surcharges on Ride-share and Yellow Cab rides.
When did everything go wrong? Between a noisy September-December, Governor Cuomo praising congestion pricing, and a reluctant Mayor De Blasio turning from a Congestion plan Comogen caterpillar into a supportive butterfly, January's NY's state of the state speech should have been a warning that congestion pricing was in for trouble in Albany again.
Value capture was thrown against the wall. Congestion pricing kept getting sliced apart. From February until Yesterday things got quite quiet.
Now we know.
If you hail a taxi or ride in an Uber you will be hit with a new surcharge. AND, there may still be a fare hike in 2019. Was this a failure by the Governor? By Albany? Probably.
Sure, It's great that the MTA will get $421 million a year, but that is almost three times less than congestion pricing would have brought in and maybe ten times less than with Value Capture. Anybody hoping for new capital projects or a rebuilding of existing lines knows how far $421 million will go.
-----------> This far for $421 Million.
As opposed to this far: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 1.5+ Billions. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
The Governor failed us, Albany Failed us. In fact the one person who could care less, NY Mayor De Blasio, is probably celebrating with a glass of wine, while burning pictures of Cuomo. He got nothing out of the deal because it wasn't his proposal. He can claim, politically, 'not his problem' talk to the Governor or Albany."
From article, (Get ready to reach deeper into your pockets for that Uber ride in the busiest parts of Manhattan.
As part of a new $168.3 billion state budget deal, Albany lawmakers on Friday night agreed to the first congestion surcharge on ride-share and yellow-cab rides below 96th Street.
The fee kicks in January 2019. It’ll cost an extra $2.75 to hail an Uber or other for-hire vehicle in the congestion zone; cabs will set riders back $2.50; and pooled-ride services such as Via will take another 75 cents.
Officials said they expect the added charges to generate about $421 million a year for the cash-strapped MTA.
To make sure the city doesn’t divert transportation funds to other purposes, the state included a provision allowing it to seize the congestion payments if necessary.
“In the event the City of New York fails to make any payment in full, the Comptroller will collect or intercept such funds necessary from certain revenue sources of the City of New York,” according to a memo outlining the deal.)
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