Businesses could easily flee New York to New Jersey because of new congestion toll: Senator

Companies could easily flee New York for New Jersey if they find that Midtown’s new congestion tax is hurting their business and workers too much, Garden State Sen. George Helmy said Sunday.

The fee of $9 for cars and up to $22 for trucks is expected to have an outsized effect on New Jersey commuters and companies doing business in Manhattan, Helmy said on “The Point with Marcia Kramer.” CBS New York.

The senator said the toll – which supporters say will reduce traffic and fund the perennially cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority – could prompt some New York businesses to move across the Hudson, where workers and customers are not available Additional costs would have to be borne by the cash register.

“Over the last two years, a growing number of New York City-based organizations, including business groups, have said this is bad for business and bad for working families in the city,” Helmy said.

“Many of the employees who come into the city every day are from New Jersey, primarily northern New Jersey, or they live in our coastal communities,” the senator said.

“And if they can get their businesses to move to Jersey City or Hoboken, where we’re already seeing some of that influx, I think that will be good for New Jersey,” he said.

But he reiterated that overall congestion pricing is “bad for New Jersey and bad for the city.”

Several Garden State officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, have called the new tolls a mistake.

“This plan is a tax on New Jersey families that will force New Jerseyans to pay for MTA upgrades – all without giving a dime back for NJ TRANSIT,” said Sherrill, who co-chaired Gottheimer is running to succeed Murphy next year.

“Make no mistake: New Jersey will not stand idly by as New York uses our commuters as a meal ticket for the MTA,” she said.

There are already nearly a dozen lawsuits challenging the expensive plan, which recently cleared a key legislative hurdle and is set to take effect Jan. 5, CBS said.

Earlier this month, lawyers for the New Jersey governor urged a federal judge in Newark to rule on one of the largest lawsuits seeking to eliminate congestion pricing – a plan that Hochul proposed, then paused before the election and resumed immediately after.

“I have always expressed my openness to a form of congestion pricing that meaningfully protects the environment and does not impose unfair burdens on New Jersey’s hard-working commuters,” Murphy said of tolling. “Today’s plan fails that test miserably.”