Gov. Hochul is the face of the MTAs congestion-toll madness: Dont let her fool you

Gov.Hochul rushed to squelch outrage over the MTA’s extra surge-pricing squeeze on Manhattan drivers after The Post broke the news that the $9 congestion-pricing toll would soar to $11.25 — a whopping 25% — on “gridlock alert” days next month.But notice that she only promised she wouldn’t allow the added toll hikes; the agency’s legal power to do it remains.

And she’s certainly not retreating on the central outrage: The $9 toll itself remains her “gift that keeps on taking.”Plus, the agency just OK’d a plan to hit straphangers and bus riders with a 4% fare hike in 2025 — bringing it to an even $3 a ride.Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins pulled an 11th-hour power play with a surprise nix of the MTA’s proposed $65 billion capital plan.Since neither player has ever shown the least concern for fiscal responsibility, that wasn’t a move to hold the transit agency to a higher standard, but a signal that they mean to further politicize its spending.All this, as state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s new audit flags the MTA’s poor progress in implementing key money-saving internal reforms: The agency’s efforts to transform its procurement process have not achieved its objectives of improved service levels for the customer, process efficiencies and cost reductions.“Consolidation, efficiency, and savings in this area was promised years ago, but has yet to be fully realized,” charges DiNapoli.The MTA spends over $7 billion a year on procurement, from construction contracts to office supplies — yet couldn’t show it had achieved any of the efficiencies and savings claimed in reports on its Transformation Plan.The agency’s operations, finances and spending all need bottom-to-top review.But Hochul and the Legislature only offer PR damage-control and political games.The MTA will never get a house-cleaning unless and until Albany gets one first....