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Statement from Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar on Potential Economic Damage from Congestion Pricing Tax

October 21, 2021

“The New York State Conservative Party lives, not dreamland, and in the reality of this moment imposing a congestion pricing tax on vehicles traveling south of 60th Street in Manhattan would be foolhardy in the extreme.

“Midtown and Lower Manhattan, traditionally the state’s most formidable economic engines, are reeling from Covid-19 and the workplace changes it caused. These areas are struggling mightily to attract back workers and visitors. Slapping the public with a tax to enter these commercial districts would be an obvious disincentive that could have serious ramifications for the overall state economy.

“A congestion pricing tax would be wrong for a number of reasons — it hurts low-income New Yorkers and those transit desserts especially, and it will simply move traffic to other parts of the city, among other things — but the destruction it could cause to Manhattan recovery efforts alone should halt it in its tracks.

“It’s Economics 101: Why would we tax people to enter an area we’re trying to revive?”

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