Trumps transportation secretary gives Hochul last-minute extension to shut down NYC congestion pricing

President Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday gave Gov.Kathy Hochul a last-minute, 30-day extension to scrap congestion pricing.Duffy, in a blustering tweet sent a day before the feds’ original Friday deadline to end the controversial toll program, told Hochul that Trump and the feds were putting her “on notice.”He blasted the governor for her disrespect and refusal to end “cordon” pricing – presumably a typo for “congestion.”“Your unlawful pricing scheme charges working-class citizens to use roads their federal tax dollars already paid to build,” he angrily wrote, before giving Hochul some leeway.“We will provide New York with a 30-day extension as discussions continue.”“Know that the billions of dollars the federal government sends to New York are not a blank check.

Continued noncompliance will not be taken lightly,” he warned.Hochul and MTA officials had vowed to keep collecting the $9 tolls from motorists, despite the previous deadline imposed by the feds.They argued the program stands so long as a legal challenge to Duffy’s move to yank approval for the tolls winds through the courts.Duffy’s tweet hints that Hochul’s talks with Trump over a pipeline deal could have led to the extension.“Just as your high tolls and no free road option are a slap in the face to hard working Americans, your refusal to approve two vital pipelines that will lower fuel costs by 50% are against the public’s best interests,” he said....