MTA moving ahead with congestion pricing on Jan. 5 despite NJ’s legal efforts

Tolls on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street will move ahead as scheduled this weekend — unless New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration can convince a judge to bolster a recent ruling.

Beginning Sunday, the MTA plans to flip on automated tolling cameras that will bill passenger vehicles $9 during daytime hours in the MTA's "congestion relief zone." It would mark the start of a years-in-the-making congestion pricing program that’s slated to raise billions of dollars for New York City’s public transit system.

An attorney for Murphy’s office, which sued to try to block the toll from taking effect, claims a ruling Monday from Senior U.S. Judge Leo Gordon prevents New York from moving ahead with the toll, at least temporarily.

But while the ruling demanded more details about the program, it did not include a specific order blocking the toll from taking effect. And unless Murphy’s office can quickly convince the judge to clarify that his ruling actually does temporarily prohibit the plan, the MTA and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul say they intend on charging the toll as scheduled.

“Now that the judge has issued his ruling, the program will move forward this weekend,” Hochul said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Murphy declined comment Tuesday.

The complicated 72-page opinion marked the latest in the years-long saga over congestion pricing, which New York state lawmakers and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo first approved in 2019. The toll is intended to reduce traffic in the most congested areas of Manhattan while generating money to improve the subway, bus and commuter rail systems.

The continuing legal dispute has also exposed simmering tensions between Hochul and Murphy, a pair of Democratic governors previously thought to be strong allies who found themselves on the opposite side of tense — and ultimately unsuccessful — talks to settle the lawsuit.

Murphy’s office, represented by attorney Randy Mastro, made a number of arguments challenging whether the Federal Highway Administration properly conducted a thorough review of the unintended consequences of congestion pricing, including added pollution in New Jersey from a potential increase in traffic. The federal agency had to approve the program before it could take effect.

In his ruling, Gordon largely ruled against New Jersey — with two key exceptions.

The judge found the highway administration and MTA didn’t provide enough specifics about how much money the MTA plans to spend in New Jersey to combat pollution and ease traffic. And he reserved judgement on the overall toll structure until those details come in — giving Murphy’s office some hope that the judge could still ultimately block congestion pricing.

Gordon set a schedule for the highway administration and MTA to provide the information that will stretch into February, factoring in time for the various parties to respond in court. Because of that, Mastro and some organizations opposed to congestion pricing argue that Gordon’s ruling should block the toll from taking effect on Sunday.

“Because of New Jersey’s litigation, the judge has ordered a remand, and the MTA therefore cannot proceed with implementing the current congestion pricing proposal on Jan. 5, 2025,” Mastro said in a statement Monday.

Arthur Schwartz, a longtime New York City-based attorney who's been involved in transportation issues, said New Jersey’s interpretation is “wrong.”

Gordon’s opinion didn’t include any type of injunction or stay — legal terms that prevent an action or temporarily suspend a ruling — to block the toll from taking effect while the lawsuit continues, Schwartz said.

“[The judge] left open this little door, but as long as it doesn’t have the words that the program is stayed, then it’s not,” Schwartz said. “It has to say that. It doesn’t say that.”

John Reichman, an attorney representing dozens of New Jersey-based organizations that support congestion pricing and intervened in the case, reached a similar conclusion.

“In order for it to not go forward, the court needs to issue an order that says it’s stopping the program from going forward,” he said. “This decision didn’t do that.”

Even if congestion pricing does move ahead on Sunday, Gordon’s ruling provided some hope to opponents of the toll.

For one, the judge will still have to rule on the actual toll structure once he receives more specifics. Hochul rolled out a revised plan last month, which varies depending on the time of day and whether the driver’s in a passenger vehicle, motorcycle or commercial truck. New Jersey is challenging whether it was properly put in place.

“New York and the MTA can try and flip the bird to a federal judge, but they won't be able to get out of one truth: they can’t move forward without addressing the serious health and environmental impacts,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a congestion-pricing critic running for New Jersey governor, said in a statement.

Gordon’s ruling also ensures that the legal arguments over congestion pricing will stretch into President-elect Donald Trump’s presidency.

Trump, a native New Yorker, is an outspoken critic of congestion pricing.

He won’t yet be in office when the Federal Highway Administration has to provide specifics to the judge, with those details due by Jan. 17. But he will be when the highway administration has to respond to New Jersey’s critiques in court a few weeks later.

New York City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) said it’s inevitable Trump will end the congestion-pricing program.

“Given all this uncertainty, if Gov. Hochul does not pause the start of congestion pricing immediately … it would only exhibit her utter disdain for her own constituents, most of whom absolutely loathe this cash-grabbing scheme,” Borelli wrote on X, the social-media platform.

Hochul has made clear she has no intention of delaying the toll. She backed a $9 base toll last month after abruptly pausing a previously planned $15 charge, which had been slated to take effect in June.

In her statement, the New York governor said commuters deserve a “world-class transit system,” residents deserve clean air and drivers deserve less traffic.

“This is what we will begin to achieve — at a lower cost to drivers — when congestion pricing begins on Jan. 5,” she said.