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bodhipooh t1_j2d34ij wrote

Reply to comment by diplore in Gridlock downtown on Friday afternoon by Old_Perspective_6417

Jersey City doesn’t have the legal authority to do that. We are not NYC. They [NYC] enjoy a special status (conferred upon them by the State legislature) that gives the city the legal authority to enact laws and regulations that wouldn’t be possible or legal for other cities to do the same. Basically, anything we want to do that’s not strictly local has to be approved or allowed by the State government and legislature. For example, we couldn’t create additional taxes (eg, the recent payroll tax) unless explicitly approved by the State Legislature. We can’t control or restrict access to local roads without the state approving that. And, a plan to impose congestion pricing, or other surcharges, would require state and federal approval, along with the cooperation of the NJTA and (possibly?) the PANYNJ.

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diplore t1_j2dlc56 wrote

My comment was meant to be more high-level, it stands to reason that there would be mounds of political red tape. New York also cannot just deploy congestion pricing at will, either. It had to be signed into law by state legislature as well as the New York State governor, and still requires approval on a federal level from the FHWA.

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ffejie t1_j2dtrsn wrote

Yes, and we've seen how long NYC is taking to get a law implemented (it was signed way back in 2019!) - it will be a long time before JC can get something like this done. With that in mind, I guess that means we should start now.

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