Adams Won’t Push For Tax Credit for First Responders or Teachers Forced to Work Inside Congestion Zone
A tax credit would enable teachers, and first responders who have to travel into the congestion pricing zone to pay the MTA $9 to travel into the zone during peak hours.Mayor Eric Adams said he won’t push for relief in the form of tax credits.
| 08 Jan 2025 | 07:23
Hey, what can i do? Mayor Eric Adams says it is beyond his control to push for tax credits for teachers and first responders from police, fire and EMTS who live outside the congestion pricing zone and drive personal cars to work. MTA Chairman Janno Lieber urged individuals to seek relief from their employers. But Adams says don’t look to the city for relief. (
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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.
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 moreresidents who do live there or to teach the children of the adults who live there.
But when Adams was asked at a recent press briefing if he might take up Lieber’s suggestion and provide relief in the form of a tax credit, he said it is not under his control.
Two issues with the, every credit, every waiver. [The MTA has] to reach that billion dollar number by law. It’s number one. 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?
He 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.”