A downtown congestion tax for D.C. doesn't make sense, mayor says
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
Mayor Muriel Bowser is a big no on congestion pricing.
The big picture: Bowser on Tuesday released a long-awaited study on the idea, only to declare it "deeply flawed" and the wrong move for a downtown still recovering from its telework and DOGE-induced rut.
- Not to mention, Congress would likely come down hard on local D.C. charging visitors a tax to see the nation's capital, the Bowser administration believes.
What they're saying: "Taxing people up to $10 to drive into Downtown DC is a bad idea — especially now," Bowser wrote in an accompanying letter to the D.C. Council, which fought her for years to publicize the study.
The intrigue: Before the pandemic, downtown D.C. was growing and the idea of a congestion tax was catching on among both transit boosters and business groups.
- The study was commissioned in 2019, completed in 2021 and was supposed to have been released two years ago at the latest.
- But after the pandemic decimated downtown, Bowser didn't want to put it out.
Its secrecy spawned a "mythological reputation" over its contents, D.C. city administrator Kevin Donahue admitted Tuesday.
- The city finally decided to share the findings to rebuke advocates who think a congestion tax could help solve the city's current budget gaps.
- It won't, he said — the years-old report says a congestion tax would raise $345 million annually, but "assumes we live in a world that just doesn't exist anymore."
Zoom out: Bowser says D.C. isn't New York, where a congestion tax debuted last year in Manhattan.
What's ahead: Some council members still back the idea, including mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George.
- She tweeted that the report could now be a jumping-off point for the city to look at "opportunities to reduce congestion, improve air quality & public health, & strengthen public transit."
- A key recommendation? "For a congestion pricing program to succeed in D.C.," the report notes, "transit service would need to be improved."