Overview
- Bruce Blakeman, speaking Tuesday, vowed to end the $9 toll to enter Manhattan below 60th Street and said he would pursue one of three options: repeal the law, issue an executive order, or tell the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to stop enforcement.
- Legal and fiscal experts and reporting say those options face steep obstacles because a governor cannot erase state law by order, the Democratic-controlled Legislature would have to vote to repeal the statute, and halting enforcement risks the MTA defaulting on bonds tied to roughly $15 billion in future toll revenue and facing lawsuits.
- The Hochul campaign immediately rejected Blakeman’s proposal, tied his stance to President Trump, and defended the governor’s investments in subway safety and public transit funding.
- Blakeman framed the toll as an affordability tax and offered alternatives such as cleaner stations, more conductors and police on trains, and stricter enforcement against fare evasion to boost ridership instead of the toll.
- The exchange sharpens one of the race’s closing-week themes — transit funding, public safety and cost of living — with early voting under way and Election Day on Nov. 3 making turnout in downstate suburbs and upstate counties decisive.