NYC comptroller and advocates consider legal action to reinstate congestion pricing

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said on Wednesday that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s move to halt congestion pricing may violate several state and federal laws — and laid out plans to file lawsuits to force her to move ahead with the tolling program.

During a news conference in Lower Manhattan, Lander said he’s working with transit advocates to pursue legal action to reinstate the program, which was designed to charge drivers a $15 base toll to enter Manhattan below 60th Street and use the proceeds to finance $15 billion worth of transit upgrades. He argued that “Hochul took a disastrously wrong turn” that’s “sudden and potentially illegal.”

“This broad coalition of legal experts and potential plaintiffs will act to ensure the swift and inevitable implementation of congestion pricing, even if it means taking their cases to court,” said Lander.

Lander argued Hochul may be in violation of the 2019 state law that established congestion pricing. He said the governor’s pause may also violate the Americans with Disabilities Act because the MTA planned to rely on the proceeds from the tolls to pay for work to make dozens of subway stations wheelchair-accessible. And he suggested the move could also break state climate laws because the tolls were expected to reduce air pollution from cars.

“We're here to make it clear that if congestion pricing is not implemented as legally mandated on June 30, we are ready and able to take the state to court,” Lander said.

The tolls were scheduled to launch on June 30, until Hochul announced her 11th-hour flip-flop last week. Since then, MTA Chair Janno Lieber has said the MTA will need to drastically reduce its construction plans and focus on keeping the transit system in a state of good repair.

“Pausing congestion pricing just weeks before it starts is not only craven, dangerous and shortsighted — it’s illegal,” Sara Lind, co-executive director of the advocacy group Open Plans, said in a statement. “Congestion pricing is the law, passed explicitly to save New Yorkers from debilitating congestion, traffic violence, transit inaccessibility and climate disaster.”

Lieber said on Monday that he plans to present a new capital plan to the MTA board on June 26. He warned the loss of the congestion pricing revenues could force the agency to hold off on buying new electric buses and installing modern signal systems that speed up train service.

Lander did not say when he or the advocates would file lawsuits but noted they would likely wait to see what actions the MTA board and federal transportation officials will take in the aftermath of Hochul's decision.

MTA officials said the program still requires final sign off from the city, Federal Highway Administration, state Department of Transportation and the MTA itself. Congestion pricing would be authorized through the federal “Value Pricing Pilot Program,” but the U.S Department of Transportation has not yet sent along a document allowing all the parties to give their final approval, according to the officials. Until Hochul’s last-minute move to halt the tolls, the document was seen as a formality.

“Everybody at the MTA board recognizes that we're still subject to the state law that says congestion pricing needs to be implemented,” Lieber said on Monday. “It's just that at this moment, the mechanism to get it done, the federal approval that is required, can't be obtained.”

The transit agency also faces several lawsuits in New York and New Jersey that seek to halt the program. Those suits have accused the federal government of an “arbitrary and capricious” decision to approve the plan. But now advocates believe it’s the governor who’s doing exactly that.

“The governor postponing or canceling congestion pricing actually is arbitrary and capricious,” Jon Orcutt, a former DOT official who is now director of advocacy for Bike New York, said. “It's the law. It's set up. It's ready to go. You could flip the switch an hour from now. So I think there's a pretty strong case here.”

Lieber said the MTA would continue to fight the pending lawsuits against congestion pricing so that the program can launch at some point.

MTA attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote to the judge overseeing the New York cases on Wednesday, noting that he now has more time to make a decision after Hochul shelved congestion pricing. Kaplan apologized for the “hurry-up-and-wait nature of the proceedings” and asked the judge to wait until the MTA board meeting later this month before issuing a ruling.

“Our hope is that, by that point in time, the MTA defendants will have more information about the timing and implementation of the program,” she wrote.