Adams Won’t Go to Bat for Teachers and First Responders Who Work Inside Congest Zone

When Janno Lieber gave his press conference on the brink of the start of congestion pricing, he suggested that employers whose workers had to travel in and out of the zone should push for a break from their employer to offset the $9 toll that the MTA is collecting.

“Those folks properly can raise that issue with their employer,” Lieber said at his press conference. “If your employer is requiring you to drive instead of take mass transit, and requiring you to use the car to move in during your job, that’s a legitimate question to raise with your employer,” he said.

One of the biggest employers happens to the City of New York which pays the public school teachers, police, firefighters and EMTs. Often the city salaries mean they can’t afford to live in many of the swanky neighborhoods inside the congestion pricing zone but still have to travel into the district to protect the 400,000 or more residents who do live there or to teach the children who live there.

But when Adams was asked at a recent press briefing if he might take up Lieber’s suggestion and provide relief perhaps via a tax credit, he said it is not under his control and there was no easy path to give out exemptions just to first responders or teachers. Too many waivers would mean less revenue for the MTA to collect.

“Two issues with the, every credit, every waiver. [The MTA has] to reach that billion dollar number by law. It’s number one,” Adams said. “Number two, the question becomes, where do you stop? And that is a real challenge that we are facing, that every civil servant deserves some form of benefits that’s attached to their union contracts. And so it’s like, what do you stop? You know, which civil servant, do you tell, they should not have the credits that you’re talking about?

Adams continued, “We’re not saying ‘tough luck’ and that’s not the goal to say tough luck. What you do, you do what’s in your span of control. And I cannot say it any clearer, our state lawmakers and MTA will be the deciding factor of the shaping of this congestion pricing. That’s not within my scope of authority. And like I said, I got 99 problems, brother, you know, and I’m not looking to take on new ones.”

The United Federation of Teachers did not return calls from Straus News seeking comment on Adams latest statements. But back in mid-November when Gov. Kathy Hochul first announced that the tolls would go live on Jan. 5, the teachers’ union president Michael Mulgrew blasted the decision. “Pollution and traffic congestion will be worse in the poor, working- and middle-class neighborhoods of the city, and these same families are still being asked to shoulder the cost. No one disputes that New York needs to invest in public transit. But doing it on the backs of the working people of New York City is wrong, and tone deaf.”

The heads of the two main firefighter unions, the EMT local which is still working without a contract and the United Firefighters Association both urged their members who have to work inside the zone to seek transfers out of the zone.

On any given day, UFA president Andrew Ansbro said that about 200 firefighters have to move between houses to cover a house with a shortage. On day one of congestion pricing, about 20 firefighters had to move into and out of the congestion pricing zone in personal cars.

The UFT said that it urging members to work to contract and whenever they need to transfer to a firehouse that is experiencing a shortage to ask for an official fire department vehicle to pick them up and transport their 85 pounds of gear. Andrew And