NYC NOW - November 30, 2023 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: November 30, 2023

WNYC’s David Furst and Stephen Nessen discuss how much drivers could pay under the MTA’s congestion pricing program. Plus, thousands of ticket holders are still waiting on refunds from Electric Zoo, the annual music festival that's over Labor Day weekend. And finally, WNYC’s Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky looks into data from the federal government that raises questions about how thoroughly medical doctors' pasts are being checked.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. We begin with news for our region's commuters. We finally know how much drivers could pay under the MTA's congestion pricing program. The group in charge of setting the tolls briefed officials this week. Here's New York City Mayor Eric Adams responding to the plan to charge drivers a $15 toll to enter Manhattan. I think the $15 proposal is the beginning of the conversation. Now it's time to hear from community to deliberate and to make the determination of who is going to be exempted, who's not going to be exempted.

But the MTA board has been deliberating for months on the deal and its exemptions. They're expected to approve the structure next Wednesday. For more, WNYC's David First talked with transit reporter Stephen Nesson. That conversation after the break. The tolling zone to remind us is in Manhattan below 60th, Reed. So the big question, how much will it cost to drive there? Give us the details. $15, that's the number, David. $15 for passenger vehicles that want to enter the zone between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the weekends, which I know you're interested in, it starts at 9 a.m. and runs

to 9 p.m. So a little bit shorter. But, you know, if you drive in the overnight hours, that would be 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. There's a 75% discount. So it only costs 375. And there are different rates for different types of vehicles. So smaller trucks, like box trucks, would pay $24. And the big rigs, those much larger trucks, would pay $36. And, you know, taxis already pay $250 or $2 surcharge under congestion pricing now. But they're going to get a little bit higher fee as well. So yellow, green, and black taxis will pay an extra $1.25 to enter the zone.

And for higher app-based vehicles like Uber and Lyft will pay extra. at $2.50, which they will likely pass on to the riders. Intercity charter buses, those big buses you see, those will pay $24. And tour buses, the bigger ones, will pay $36 under the plan that we looked at. During the public comment period, hundreds of people asked for exemptions to the toll. Did the group in charge of setting the tolls grant any? Some, but not many. They wrote in their report, actually, that they're trying to give as few exemptions as possible because they want to keep the toll as low as possible. It's sort of like a balancing act, right? If you give somebody a break, then someone else has to pay a little bit more. But there were a few. I think the biggest one that folks want to know about

is a $5 discount, sort of a refund, I guess. If you enter the tolling zone after driving through the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, the Queens Midtown Tunnel, and the Hugh Carey Tunnel. Those are the only ones that are going to be getting any sort of credit. It's a $5 credit against the toll. I should add motorcycles will only pay $2.50 to get their credit to enter the zone. The motorcycles get the $2.50 if they cross one of those, they'll actually pay half of the toll. But one complaint you were guaranteed to hear about in the coming days is the people who didn't get the exemption. And chief among them is going to be civil service workers, teachers, cops, firefighters,

even MTA workers themselves will not be exempt from the toll. It's early, I know, this is just a draft of the recommendations, but what has the reaction been so far? Well, predictably, Congress member from New Jersey, Josh Gottheimer, a vehement opponent of congestion pricing was ready with a witty response. But he actually followed up with something interesting. He's calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to look into the MTA's finances, how they're going to use this money on their projects.

and he thinks there might be something worth looking into. And Governor Phil Murphy, who is actually suing the MTA right now over congestion pricing, saying the agency didn't do a thorough job planning the program, he called the latest information unfair and ill-conceived. Okay, so what's next? And when does this go into effect? Next week, the full MTA board has to approve these figures and the plan. It's not clear they'll rubber stamp it, but let's say they've been very supportive

because congestion pricing is expected to bring in $1 billion a year for transit improvements. After selling bonds, that would raise $15 billion for capital improvements, all stuff they want to make trains and buses and everything better. But there's some more steps. There's a few rounds of public hearings about the new tolls. And then there's still that lawsuit I mentioned, which threatens to hold everything up. But if that's resolved by the spring, which is what the MTA hopes, it wants to start tolling drivers sometime in April or May.

That's WNYC's transit reporter Stephen Nesson, talking with my colleague David First. In other local news, Electric Zoo, the annual music festival that's over Labor Day weekend on Randall's Island, was marked by problems this year. And tens of thousands of ticket holders are still waiting on refunds. WMYC's John Campbell has the details. The first day of the festival was abruptly canceled. and organizers oversaw the third day, leaving some ticket holders on the outside looking in. Lee Squatieri is an attorney who filed a lawsuit against Avant Gardner, the company behind the festival. He says there's a case to be made that ticket holders should be reimbursed for travel costs, too.

Where that's going to shake out in the class action, that will be a matter of the judge to decide what the commonality is beyond ticket refund. In a brief statement to WNYC, Avant Gardner. said it still intends on issuing refunds. New York licenses thousands of new doctors each year. But data from the federal government raised questions about how thoroughly those doctors pass are being checked. WMYC's Jacqueline Jeffrey Wollensky has more. The National Practitioner Data Bank was started by Congress in the 1980s to track doctors

across states. The goal was to make sure that state medical boards could check an applicant's history before giving them a medical license. But a WNYC analysis shows that New York checked the data bank just about 1,200 times in 2021, the same year it licensed 6,000 doctors. In response, New York state officials cited the cost of checking the data bank, and they said that there are other sources of information on doctors. But Robert Oshall, who worked on the federal data bank for more than a decade,

says the state could be missing out on important safety information. It's maybe practical for them, but it's short. short-sighted in the long run in terms of protecting the public from possible bad physicians. He also questioned the state's concerns about costs. The data bank charges $2.50 for each query. That's got to be budget dust. It's just not a significant amount. But the real cost is having the people to look at the data once they get it and to investigate as necessary. Oshall and other patient safety experts say state medical boards need to be properly funded so they can do their due diligence. Otherwise, they warned that patients could be at risk.

That's WNYC's Jacqueline Jeffrey Walensky. And this is a good time to remind you about WNYC's investigative podcast series, Eminent Danger, one doctor and a trail of injured women. You can find it on this feed or by going to gotamist.com slash podcast. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back to more. tomorrow.