Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne says that the county has been falsely billed on three separate occasions for New York City Congestion Pricing tolls.
“Our county is being told to pay for trips we never made, in a vehicle we never used, to a location we never entered,” Byrne said. “This isn’t just a billing error; it’s a warning sign that congestion pricing is fundamentally flawed, incompetently implemented, and grossly unfair to taxpayers.”
Byrne said that the county’s Office of Consumer Affairs uncovered the wrongful billing.
In a letter to Marc Molinaro, the former Congressman from New York’s 19th District who now is the administrator-designate of the Federal Transit Administration, Byrne explained, “On January 9, 2025, February 12, 2025, and March 2, 2025, a county-owned Ford Escape was improperly charged with the congestion tax after a Central Business District Tolling Program license-plate reader mistook it for another vehicle, in this case a Chevy pickup truck with an FDNY (New York City Fire Department) emblazoned hood. Our Office of Consumer Affairs responded with a letter to E-ZPass on March 11, 2025, challenging the tolls for the very sound reason that the license-plate reader tolled the wrong automobile. Instead of responding to the correspondence, however, New York state sent a new bill on March 30, 2025, with the overdue balance accompanied by late fees.”
Byrne had been an opponent of Congestion Pricing before the billing situation surfaced, calling it a “congestion tax” that disproportionately harms Hudson Valley commuters and small municipalities .
“I respectfully request an immediate investigation into this fiasco in order to understand how many other municipalities’ taxpayers are being squeezed by these unpredictable and arbitrary tolls,” Byrne said in his letter.
Byrne is encouraging other municipal leaders and residents to review their billing records and speak out if they have faced similar mistaken charges by the Congestion Pricing system.
“Our Consumer Affairs director has rightly characterized this Katka-esque scenario of government run amok as a ‘fiasco,'” Byrne said in his letter to Molinaro. “This is but one more example why congestion pricing – or more accurately the “congestion tax” – must be repealed immediately.”
Byrne sent copies of his April 11 letter to President Trump, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
