Governor Hochul, Please Put Riders First. Don’t Suspend the Gas Tax!

“Suspending the gas tax might provide some small and temporary relief to drivers, but the overall cost is too high. It must not happen. Instead, we should be looking at ways to get people out of cars and into trains and buses, particularly when we’re seeing congestion back at pre-pandemic levels. Gas taxes fund our critical transit network – the engine that moves the region and its essential workers. Across the city and state, working class New Yorkers are the most likely to take transit instead of driving, and instead of subsidizing drivers at the expense of millions of transit riders – many of whom have no other option – we need to look for ways to expand and strengthen our transit system. It’s time to find new ways to fund transit, not take money away from making sure riders can get where they need to go. It doesn’t matter that new sources of funds will make up for these. It’s too short a step to taking away this key funding source for good, right when we’re looking at finding dedicated operating revenue streams – including ‘flipping the gas tax’ so a larger portion goes to transit in the MTA region, instead of to roads and bridges. Riders rely on transit and we ask Governor Hochul to stand strong against suspending the gas tax.”