NORTH JERSEY — Today, February 1, 2024, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) released the following statement after New York blamed ongoing Congestion Tax lawsuits for  MTA mismanagement. Gottheimer also released a short-list of spending and waste from New York and the MTA: 

“As I’ve been saying for years, New York and the MTA should clean up their own mess before trying to whack hardworking Jersey families with the proposed Congestion Tax. I’m all for improving mass transit, it’s why I fought to claw back billions for New Jersey public transportation in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. But right now, all the MTA and New York’s Congestion Tax is doing is shifting the blame from those who are truly at fault — themselves,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “Whether it’s losing $700 million to fair skippers or spending a whopping $1 billion unnecessarily for a poorly designed subway station, the MTA clearly has no regard for the taxpayer dollars it’s been entrusted to use wisely.”

Short-list on Wasteful Spending by NY and MTA That Could Have Been Used to Improve Mass Transit:

1. An extra $1 billion to expand the Second Avenue subway stations twice as large as experts say is needed.
2. $600 million to the Buffalo Bills, the most public money ever spent on an NFL stadium, to build a brand new stadium right next to their existing stadium. 
3. $700 million a year lost to fare skippers. 
4. An additional $700,000 on subway gates designed to keep out fare-beaters which can be defeated by a simple hack.
5. $5 million on workers to look for fires at Brooklyn bus depot because the sprinklers don’t work.

Governor Hochul has admitted that the Congestion Tax is just a plan to rescue the MTA from years of billion dollar budget holes and mismanagement.

###