Earlier this month, New York implemented it the much-disputed Congestion Relief Zone toll scheme, which charges drivers between $9 and $21.60 per day to drive under 60th Street in Manhattan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on January 6 guidance released which exempts employees and staff of foreign missions and international organizations, including the United Nations, from paying Congestion Relief Zone fees.
“Wait until people have had enough of this,” Republican New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino told Fox News Digital. “Why should a truck driver from Queens or New Jersey have to pay a new $10,000 a year charge for deliveries in Manhattan, while a corrupt Iranian diplomat gets total immunity?”
The Queens Republican told Fox News Digital that the announcement of special treatment for United Nations staff did not come “as a surprise.” Paladino said the UN “has been using our city as their personal playground for decades, and the State Department has allowed them to grant blanket exemptions from the many laws and fines that ordinary New Yorkers struggle with,” adding : ‘It’s just one big mess. “
NJ DEM STRIKES NEW YORK AS CONTROVERSIAL NYC CONGESTION PRICES TAKE EFFECT
An NYPD officer stands outside parked vehicles during the United Nations General Assembly in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday, September 20, 2023. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
“Our diplomats can just skate anywhere in the five boroughs,” Paladino said, explaining how diplomats are routinely forgiven for speeding tickets, fines and parking tickets. “We have seen cars with diplomat plates racking up six figures in unpaid parking fines,” she said.
An investigation by NBC New York found in 2022 that Russian diplomats had collected more than $100,000 in unpaid parking fines since 2003. A State Department spokesperson referred NBC to a policy indicating that “three or more unpaid violations since 2003 will result in a country being suspended from registering or renewing any diplomatic license plates.” Russia had 46 outstanding unpaid tickets, but the State Department “declined to say definitively” to NBC News reporters whether Russia’s ability to register or renew diplomatic badges was suspended.
The US State Department has exempted UN diplomats and missions in New York City from paying new congestion charges, according to recent guidance published by the government. (Getty Images)
The Congestion Relief Zone charges drivers based on the size of their vehicle. These rates, which will increase in 2031, are intended to raise money to improve the transportation system and reduce traffic in the zone. Paladino said these fees won’t result in “any improvement that’s going to be worth the kind of money they’re going to bring in.” Describing an “absolutely filthy, dirty, disgusting” subway system and a Metropolitan Transportation Authority deeply in debtPaladino said that “the trust factor here is zero.”
NEW YORK DEMOCRATS’ NEW TAX FORCES PUT MID-CLASS WORKERS INTO LEGAL SUBWAY TUNNELS
Above-ground equipment was installed on the streets of New York City for the controversial congestion pricing plan, which electronically charges drivers to tolls for travel below 60th St., to reduce traffic and emissions, improve the quality of life for New Yorkers and people to encourage the use of public transport. transport. (Getty Images)
Congestion pricing has already had an impact beyond reducing traffic. The New York Post reported Jan. 3 that the New York City EMTs and Paramedics union was urging its members to transfer from stations within the Congestion Relief Zone because workers making less than $19 an hour would pay the $45 weekly cost to could not afford to enter the zone.
Fox News Digital contacted the State Department to ask why they were granting an exemption to UN personnel, how many vehicles they estimated would be exempt under their guidelines, and whether residents of New York and New Jersey would bear the economic burden of the Congestion Relief Zone while UN staff, including representatives of unfriendly foreign regimes, pay nothing. There was no response.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s New York-based diplomats will not have to pay the new congestion charge. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via REUTERS)
Fox News Digital also reached out to the offices of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul’s office for comment but did not receive a response.
‘As far as economics’ congestion prices “probably the worst thing that could happen so soon after COVID,” Paladino added. She said fixing a “broken city” doesn’t happen “by simply strengthening the middle class and the lower middle class.”
There are 193 member states of the United Nations, many with missions in and around New York City.
