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The waste is the governor's canceling it for craven political reasons mere weeks before it was meant to go into effect, after years of preparation (and $16B in future revenue already spoken for).

Classic. Spending the revenue before it shows up.

That's one way to describe "budgeting based off a relatively reasonable expectation of future revenue", sure.

Most people with a mortgage do the same thing.

There is enough data out there surely to make an informed decision? NYC is late to the congestion charging scheme, so just look at all the other places doing it?

This is normal NY politics. They were perfecting their corruption skills before Chicago was even blueprints. None of that money was “wasted.” The nominal objective was never the primary purpose of the project; it was always to enrich the politically connected and their various clients, lackeys, and so on.