Earlier today, news broke that President Donald Trump’s Department of Transportation intends to withdraw federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing. In a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul, DOT secretary Sean Duffy asserted that congestion tolls posed an unfair financial burden on working-class motorists, who received no benefit from transit-system improvements funded by these tolls. The letter, however, did not specify a termination date, indicating a window of opportunity for Hochul and the MTA to make a deal with Trump.
Armed with the leverage of wreaking fiscal havoc on the MTA, the president can extract concessions that would ordinarily be out of the question politically for New York’s leaders, opening up avenues for much-needed structural reforms. To revive congestion pricing, the state should agree to crack down on fare evasion and to reform the MTA’s cost structures, including its long-outdated labor agreements. In doing so, the president would spur American innovation, boost public safety, and improve public-sector functioning.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Trump gave New Yorkers better public goods. In November 1986, then real-estate developer Trump joined then New York City mayor Ed Koch, the media, and ice skaters in Central Park to celebrate the reopening of Wollman Rink. The rink, which had been closed for repairs since 1980, had already cost taxpayers $12 million, more than three times its original estimate. That June, Koch had accepted Trump’s offer to renovate the rink by Christmas for about $3 million. Trump came in ahead of schedule and $750,000 under budget, accomplishing in less than five months what the city failed to do in six years and with a much larger budget. At the reopening ceremony, Koch said, “Donald, you performed a great public service.”
Fast forward to early January, when Hochul rushed to implement congestion pricing, fearing that the incoming Trump administration would revoke the program’s approval and trigger an MTA funding crisis. Congestion toll revenues are backing the MTA’s $15 billion capital-improvement project. But even after finding $400 million in operational efficiencies. the perennially cash-strapped authority faces annual deficits of over $400 million, starting in 2027.
Instead of deepening the crisis, Trump should insist that he will spare congestion pricing only if the state and localities crack down on the roughly $600 million to $800 million in annual fare evasion. Prosecutors like Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg have refused to prosecute farebeating, despite MTA calls to do so. This makes cops less likely to detain and arrest fare-beaters, given that offenders will not face meaningful consequences. That’s doubly problematic, as enforcing fare-evasion laws makes the subway system safer and increases fare collection. A New York Post investigation found that, in 2023, fare-evasion arrests yielded 24 out of the 45 guns seized from the subway system; about 30 percent of all farebeating arrestees had an active warrant. Trump’s demand could put intense political pressure on the DAs to enforce the law again.
Trump could also demand that policymakers rein in the MTA’s construction and maintenance costs. Today, union clout prevents Hochul from enacting needed structural reforms to a system that makes New York’s capital projects slower and more expensive. The state’s prevailing-wage standards, for example, require contractors to pay workers union-level wages. New York’s infrastructure projects demand much higher staffing than similar initiatives in other countries. Labor costs in New York account for 40 percent to 60 percent of total construction costs, roughly double the 20–30 percent share in countries like Italy and Sweden. A 2017 New York Times investigation, for example, found that up to 26 workers operated a tunneling machine on the extension of the No. 7 line to Hudson Yards—three times the industry standard, according to an interviewed tunnelling contractor. Union work rules also limit employee productivity, without statistically improving safety. Couple those with minority- and women-owned business contracting practices, generous overtime regulations, onerous permitting processes, and cascading delays after one subcontractor fails to perform, and the result is eight to 12 times the construction costs of other major cities like Paris, Berlin, and Istanbul.
But congestion pricing seeks to accomplish something besides raising revenue: reducing traffic. Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk has called conquering traffic “the ultimate boss battle,” and though the game isn’t over yet, congestion pricing is proving effective in New York.
Between January 5 and February 4, 1 million fewer cars entered Manhattan’s Central Business District, about a 7.5 percent reduction over last year. Cars and buses are moving faster across the city, and bus and subway ridership are up 6 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Those figures may seem relatively small, but on outer-borough express bus lines, commuters are saving up to ten minutes per trip, on average.
Potential to innovate exists here. Instead of the current all-or-nothing congestion toll, creative methods, such as dynamic pricing or per-mile or per-hour tolls, could further improve results. New York City could lead the nation in innovative solutions to urban traffic. Eliminate congestion pricing, though, and these possibilities vanish.
Killing congestion pricing may also backfire politically—and not just because it would give New Jersey governor Phil Murphy a big win. Recent polling has found that more New Yorkers approve of the program today than before its implementation. An early February poll found that 59 percent of New Yorkers statewide would prefer that the president let congestion pricing continue. Three out of four regular commuters to the congestion zone believe that traffic has lessened. New York’s business community also supports continuing the program. Coming on the heels of the Department of Justice’s extraordinary move to dismiss Mayor Eric Adams’s corruption charges, Trump stands to push New York’s leaders and residents further to resistance if he kills congestion pricing. In fact, almost immediately following news of DOT’s decision, MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber filed papers in federal court challenging it.
Four decades ago, Trump didn’t relegate the Woolman Rink to its government-imposed fate; he made the seemingly impossible happen. Now, as the nation’s chief executive, he can do it again for his hometown, in a far bigger way. But he needs to choose wisely.
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