the controversial congestion pricing plan is moving ahead but the cost to drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street is still up in the air the traffic Mobility review board met for a second time yesterday to consider charging drivers anywhere between nine and twenty three dollars when the tolls kick in next year in an effort to decrease congestion and pollution in the region while raising about a billion dollars for the MTA to make public transit improvements but Jersey continues to push back Governor Murphy sent a letter to the board urging them to give drivers crossing the Hudson River credits to lower the impact of double tolling this latest move comes after the state also announced its lawsuit over the mta's congestion pricing plan calling it unfair to Jersey drivers but Advocates of the tolling plan say the more carve outs and credits they include the more expensive the plan will be for everyone else Melissa Rose Cooper reports or attached just because we're going to the city okay we pay tall and that's about it you know we're going there to spend money have a good time we shouldn't be charged extra for that New Jersey drivers voicing their frustration over plans to implement congestion pricing in New York City ultimately forcing them to dig deeper in their pockets every time they use the Holland and Lincoln tunnels to commute across the Hudson they don't pay the price for when they come into our our state but we have to pay more now to just go in there they're also raising the MTA prices and everything in the city so we're gonna have to pay for more when we're paying the train fare or whatever the measure aimed at alleviating traffic in lower Manhattan while reducing the city's carbon Footprints would Implement a proposed toll of up to 23 dollars for drivers entering below 60th Street Transportation officials estimate it could bring in roughly one billion dollars so the MTA can make much needed improvements but with the cost of living already high many new jerseyans feel that being unfairly targeted just the pricing Arts uh medium to low income people and it doesn't hurt at all people lawmakers including Congressman Robert Menendez and Josh gottheimer have openly expressed a disapproval for congestion pricing and yesterday Governor Murphy sent a letter to the Trafford Mobility review board urging the panel to lessen the burden on Jersey drivers by implementing various recommendations like credits for low-income commuters eliminating tolls during off-peak hours and giving drivers already paying tolls for Hudson River Crossings a credit to offset the added cost of congestion pricing the panel addressing some of these concerns during its meeting last night and a credit of 14 for users of the four tunnels would increase the base auto rate by eight to nine dollars for everyone so in this scenario everyone driving into the CBD would pay the same amount in tolls in total no matter how they enter the CBD but some drivers would be contributing much less than other drivers for the congestion they cause in the central business district it's also worth mentioning that adding eight to nine dollars to the base auto rate will get the CBD toll close to the upper range of what was analyzed in the EA the infamous 23 dollar toll like a sales tax like um it doesn't matter if you're high income or low income when you buy a new shirt you pay the same amount of tax as opposed to an income tax which is graduated based on income level Felicia park Rogers is a director of regional infrastructure projects for the Tri-State Transportation campaign she says research shows most low-income residents wouldn't be affected by congestion pricing since they already use mass transit fewer than two percent of commuters from Bergen County to Central business district travel by car of those people the median income is above a hundred thousand if you look at the same districts and you say the majority of people who are commuting earn below 80 000 they are using mass transit so while this could provide a small amount of burden on a small number of people the vast majority of people who use cars as a discretionary way to commute at this point in time are people who are already higher income we're all working we're all paying a lot of money for everything in New York's expensive as it is and then they want to charge us extra you can have less people going back and forth then the board is expected to meet again before congestion pricing is finalized but critics maintain they won't stop fighting for the fair rights of drivers for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper [Music]