Firefighters ask for exemption at congestion pricing public hearing Friday
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Dozens of New York City firefighters packed MTA headquarters on Friday urging agency officials to think twice before imposing the congestion pricing toll on them.
Fire union president Andrew Ansbro told reporters that firefighters are often reassigned after their shifts have started on congestion pricing at another public hearing.
"It's very common," said Ansbro. "We have different firefighters with different skills, hazmat skills, rescue skills. And you may start at one firehouse and you may end-up somewhere across the city because they can't put that rig in service unless they have enough members with those certain skills."
Congestion pricing was approved by the New York State Legislature and slated to take effect in mid-June. That includes license plate readers and EZ Pass sensors slapping a toll on vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street.
Exemptions are already planned for emergency vehicles, specialized government vehicles and those with disabled passengers. Low-income residents would also receive discounts and tax credits. But, firefighters insist that taking mass transit is not only impractical for them-but dangerous for everyone else due to the gear they carry being contaminated.
"If a firefighter comes on (the subway) with this bag that's stinking from carcinogens and off-gassing from the fire they were at two hours ago, nobody wants that bag sitting next to their family member or their child who's on their way to school," added Ansbro. No one should be comfortable with that."
The exception is something the mayor is in support of, but the MTA says would transfer the cost onto other drivers.
"I'm very sympathetic to their view that when they're called upon to turn their personal vehicle into a city vehicle for transportation and gear-that that ought to be thought through," said MTA Chairman Janno Lieber. "If you have lots of exemptions or discounts, everybody ends up paying more on the base toll. So we are still very much committed to that vision. But we're listening to what we're hearing here, and we're going to take into account in the discussion."
The public hearings are a required step before the toll is set to be implemented in mid-June.
Thursday night's public hearing, which was the first of four, brought in more than 100 people both in person and virtually. The MTA heard from all of them.
The comments in this series of public hearings are not expected to radically change the plan to toll drivers below 60th Street, but they could help refine it.
Some, were in favor of the toll, which would charge drivers south of 60th Street $15, saying it will benefit public transit and unclog the roads, while others strongly oppose or think there should be tweaks to the plan at the very least.
Two more public hearings are set for Monday and anyone who wants to submit written comments has until March 11.
They will be held virtually and in person, but you do have to register online first.
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