New York City’s controversial congestion pricing program, which charges drivers a toll to enter midtown and lower Manhattan, contains several “mitigation efforts” and carveouts designed to limit the punitive impact of the new tax on ethnic minorities—without offering the city’s non-minorities comparable treatment, a Washington Free Beacon review found. [some emphasis, links added]
Critics warn that such allowances could potentially expose the program to litigation from the Trump administration, which has been keen to kill congestion pricing and shown a willingness to sue or take administrative action against anti-white discrimination promoted in the name of social justice.
“I think it would appeal to the Trump administration that the way the analysis was done was improper,” Randy Mastro, a Democrat and one-time top deputy to former New York City mayors Eric Adams and Rudy Giuliani, told the Free Beacon.
The so-called mitigation efforts include installing pricey air filtration systems and roadside vegetation near certain ethnic neighborhoods, as well as preferential tolls for taxi drivers, who are overwhelmingly South Asian and black.
Mastro, who led legal efforts by the state of New Jersey to kill the new tax, said the focus on limiting impact to “environmental justice communities” had been a particular fixation of the Biden administration as congestion pricing sought federal approval during his term.
“Because the Biden administration, in particular, if you were an environmental justice community, there had to be particular mitigation provided in those communities,” Mastro said.
New York City’s congestion pricing program charges a $9 toll on most cars coming into Manhattan’s major business districts during peak daytime hours, with lower tolls on nights and weekends. The area covers the entire island south of 60th Street, excluding highways.
The tolls are designed to ease congestion in Manhattan and reduce auto emissions by pushing more drivers to switch to public transportation—but congestion pricing is primarily a tool to raise billions of dollars for the city’s troubled subway and bus system. [As of Jan. 2026, the congestion tax has raised $550M. –CCD editor]
The city spent years fending off legal challenges and securing approval from the Federal Highway Administration in June 2023 before the tolls took effect in January 2025.
As part of the federal approval process, the city’s congestion pricing plan was required to adhere to Executive Order 12898, signed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1994.
“Each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations in the United States and its territories and possessions, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands,” the order mandates.
In public literature, the MTA notes that “environmental justice communities” refer to minority neighborhoods in New York City.
When the final details were hammered out, the MTA explained its aims.
“The proposed toll structure prioritizes keeping the base toll as low as possible, avoiding unnecessary traffic diversions, supporting equity goals and environmental justice, and keeping the Program simple, easy to understand, and easy to administer,” the agency said.
“Our recommended toll structure is designed to minimize these diversions, and thus minimize adverse impacts of Congestion Pricing on environmental justice communities with existing pollution and/or health burdens.”
The MTA did not respond to a request for comment.
Even though the city’s famous yellow cabs are a major source of traffic in the Big Apple, something the report noted, it included a special carve-out for taxi drivers because the lion’s share of drivers came from “environmental justice communities.”
“Nevertheless, in an effort to reduce the economic impact of the congestion toll on taxi and FHV drivers, many of whom are considered an environmental justice population, the Final EA provides that those vehicles not be subject to more than the daily toll for automobiles,” the MTA said.
Uber drivers now pay a larger congestion toll than taxi drivers. A much larger proportion of Uber drivers are white, compared with taxi drivers.
Top: Mandami and Hochul, staunch advocates of the congestion tax, are taking a victory lap since its implementation last Jan. Image via ABC7NY/YouTube screencap
Read rest at Free Beacon
