STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Not Announced

Did New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announce plans for a $1 walking fee or walking tax on people moving around on foot in New York City? No, that's not true: Viral videos that claimed existing congestion tax cameras would be used for facial recognition of pedestrians in order to charge them a walking tax were not based on any actual announcement or proposal from the governor. Hochul's press office told Lead Stories "This is 100% false."

One such viral video (archived here) was published on Tiktok on February 25, 2025. It misspelled "governor" as "govenor" and was captioned:

Crazy Govenor of New York Kathy Hochul to implement $1.00 walking fees in the NYC #NYC #KathyHochu l#fyp #news #foryou#tik

This is what the thumbnail of the video looked like on TikTok :

(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Feb 26 12:43:28 2025 UTC)

A transcript of the video's voiceover read:

New York Governor sparks outrage with proposed $1 walking tax.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is facing fierce backlash over plans to implement pedestrian tolls using existing congestion cameras. The controversial proposal would charge $1 per person crossing designated zones like Manhattan's Uptown/Downtown Divide. Critics call the scheme a cash grab, noting drivers already pay $9 daily under the city's congestion pricing system.

"This isn't about traffic. It's about vacuuming wallets to fund political agendas", argued Brooklyn resident Jamal Carter, who claims the 72nd Street cameras now block his access to his girlfriend's apartment. While officials insist the fees aim to reduce urban crowding, data shows pedestrian traffic accounts for just 11% of Manhattan's street bottlenecks.

As midnight loophole seekers plot detour routes, activists vow protests: "We'll flood City Hall with torn dollar bills before paying this walk ransom!"

The governor's office declined to comment.

Several other videos (archived here and here) and at least one post on X (archived here) made similar claims, with one video calling Hochul "New York City Mayor Kathy Hochul" (at the time of writing Eric Adams was the Mayor of New York City):

(Image source: screenshot taken by Lead Stories on February 26, 2025 at 13:29:06 UTC)

However, a Google News search for stories mentioning "Hochul," "$1" and "NYC" yielded no recent or relevant results (archived here) that would confirm such a proposal was actually made.

A search of Hochul's personal and official X accounts (archived here and here) brought up no mention of a "walking tax," "walking fee" or "walking fees." Neither did a search for those terms on the website of New York State (archived here).

A search of the Pressroom section of the website of the Office of the Governor for the term "walking" only brought up nine results (archived here), none mentioning a tax or fees.

Lead Stories reached out to Hochul's office by email and on February 26, 2025, the press office sent us a statement saying:

This is 100% false. No one is proposing a walking fee.