The mayor of Fort Lee, N.J., called New York’s congestion pricing plan “doormat treatment.”
A New Jersey congressman said pricing details disclosed for the first time late Wednesday showed that New York was “sticking it to Jersey families.”
Gov. Philip D. Murphy insisted that “as a conceptual matter,” he supports congestion pricing, but not this version of the plan, and not in his backyard.
“Everyone in the region deserves access to more reliable mass transit,” Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, said in a statement. “But placing an unjustified financial burden on New Jersey commuters is wrong.”
New York’s proposal to create new tolls to discourage people from driving into Manhattan has been embraced by environmentalists as a way to induce motorists to use mass transit, reduce congestion on the city’s most traffic-choked roads and curb climate-warming vehicle emissions. Once the plan is implemented, motorists who drive into Midtown and Lower Manhattan — whether they are coming from New Jersey, Staten Island, Westchester or anywhere else — will pay significantly more in tolls.
But New Jersey political leaders have been among the loudest and most consistent critics of what will be the first congestion pricing program in the United States.
After an advisory panel’s report showed how much the plan is likely to cost commuters who drive into New York and companies that rely on trucks to move products into New York City, Mr. Murphy vowed to continue to fight the plan in court and hinted that additional legal actions were possible.
“We’re considering all of our options, including further legal action,” he said on Thursday.
The congestion pricing plan is expected to generate $1 billion a year in revenue for public transit improvements, including upgrades to the subway and bus networks. The report released on Thursday laid out for the first time specific toll rates, credits, discounts and exemptions.
The recommendations, which will be subject to hearings before they can gain final approval from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, stipulated that buses and vans providing “transit and commuter services” would be exempt from the added fee.
More than three in four New Jersey residents who commute to work in New York already take mass transit, according to an analysis by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
Drivers who enter Manhattan over the George Washington Bridge are likely to pay an additional $15, on top of the $17.63 toll that cars without E-ZPass will pay starting in January. Those entering through the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel would be eligible for a $5 credit, according to the preliminary recommendations from the Traffic Mobility Review Board, which is advising the M.T.A. on congestion pricing.
Commercial trucks may be charged between $24 and $36, depending on their size. The fees would be about 75 percent lower before 5 a.m. and after 9 p.m. on weekdays, savings considered likely to encourage more overnight deliveries by truck drivers.
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, the West Side Highway and parts of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel are not included in the tolling plan.
Unsurprisingly, polls have shown that New Jersey residents are largely opposed to paying more to drive into New York City.
“As advertised, New York is officially sticking it to Jersey families with their commuter-crushing congestion tax,” said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat who represents northern New Jersey, including towns nearest the George Washington Bridge, where emissions are expected to increase slightly as drivers hunt for ways to avoid the new toll.
Still, not everyone was entirely displeased.
“Is the congestion pricing plan perfect? No,” said Doug O’Malley, the director of Environment New Jersey. “And it’s easy to kvetch that the plan is unfair to New Jersey.”
But an underfunded subway system in New York City, which thousands of New Jersey commuters rely on, would be a “disaster on both sides of the Hudson,” Mr. O’Malley said.
John H. Reichman, a leader of Empower NJ, a coalition of 140 environmental and community groups in New Jersey, called the recommendations “fair and sensible.”
He said they would benefit the “vast majority of New Jersey residents who use public transportation to commute into New York.”
“The plan is a win for the entire region,” Mr. Reichman added, “including New Jersey.”
Ron Simoncini, executive director of the Fair Congestion Pricing Alliance, a coalition of business groups and warehouse and trucking company owners opposed to the addition of new tolls, wryly noted that the new fees could prove to be a boon to New Jersey.
“The congestion tax is going to save the New Jersey office market,” Mr. Simoncini said. “M.T.A. will definitely succeed in reducing traffic to Midtown — and jobs.”
