All of New York Democrats’ Recent Woes Go Back to the Same Screwup

Late last week, seemingly out of the blue, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced her intention to indefinitely delay congestion pricing in New York, the thoroughly studied, meticulously designed, and long since signed-sealed-delivered policy that the state Legislature passed into law in 2019. The policy, which would charge up to $15 to each car entering Manhattan below 60th Street from the outer boroughs and out of state, was slated to go into effect on June 30 before Hochul put it on hold.

There are many accurate ways to describe the law—climate policy, quality-of-life improver, tax on the wealthy—but primarily it was an absolutely essential way to fund the city’s beleaguered public transit system, to the tune of $15 billion of bond financing, backed by $1 billion in annual revenue, that is not turning up elsewhere.

Why (why, why, why) would Hochul do that? She has largely hidden from the press and public appearances as the blowback rises to mighty proportions; her best explanation has been some combination of a strange claim about cost-of-living increases and a dubious story that someone in a diner told her to do it. (There is an even less flattering interpretation of Hochul’s head-scratching move: She was, until Monday, scheduled to attend a fundraiser where the state’s car dealers showered her with cash and celebrated her decision.)

But Hochul, whose political instincts are already notorious not even three years on the job, didn’t go it alone on this. She made the decision to scotch her party’s flagship revenue-raising climate policy after conversations with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about some all-important House races that Democrats should never have lost in the first place but now appear in jeopardy of losing again. It seems that this is yet another costly consequence of New York Dems’ storied ineptitude.

According to Politico, Hochul’s decision came after conversations with Jeffries, a fellow New Yorker and the top-ranking Democrat in the House, who stands to gain the most from the party’s securing majority control in November’s elections. It came down to electioneering: National Democrats are hoping to win pesky but necessary swing districts in the Hudson Valley and Long Island where people own cars, and they........

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