Hochul’s proposal to stop congestion pricing could be illegal

All eyes are now on the federal government.

The question of whether Kathy Hochul can unilaterally end congestion pricing could end up in court, but before that, the Federal Highway Administration is expected to take the final bureaucratic step: signing a formal letter of agreement with the MTA and New York City and New York. State Departments of Transportation.

But Streetsblog has learned that the letter was not sent, even though the congestion charge was due to start on June 30.

According to a memo that circulated this weekend among MTA advocates, elected officials and officials, this pending agreement under the Biden administration’s “Value Pricing Pilot Program” is now the only lever to Hochul to block tolls from moving forward after his failure to get the state legislature to follow his plan.

Nonetheless, the 2019 law that established congestion pricing states that the state and MTA “shall” implement tolls to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. Observers, including U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres and the Daily News editorial board, argue that this wording — not “may” or “may,” but “shall” — compels Hochul and the MTA to enact the tolls.

“Just as local officials cannot refuse to grant marriage licenses to a same-sex couple, New York state law (which provides for a congestion charge) must be enforced,” the News wrote in an article with the powerful title: “Hochul has no authority to slow down the toll program.

Hochul ostensibly decides whether the NYS DOT enters into the deal, but she does not have that authority under the 2019 law that mandated congestion pricing, the memo said.

Several districts could file a lawsuit under Section 78 of the state Civil Practice Act, which requires state or city officials to comply with their legal obligations under the state law, but the memo suggests MTA board members would have the strongest and quickest case in court.

“It is in the best interest of the MTA and transit riders that (congestion pricing) be adopted,” the memo said. “A successful Section 78 petition, directing all parties to come forward with signatures, is likely the quickest and most effective route to achieving this result.”

There’s one problem: The FHWA and US DOT have yet to release the VPPP agreement that the other three parties must sign, according to MTA sources.

Transit officials never expected the deal to be more than a formality after the FHWA conducted its review of the MTA’s final environmental analysis of the toll system that the board of the MTA approved in March, a source within the agency said.

Will pro-price board representatives oppose the government?

Hochul controls a plurality of votes on the MTA board, but even the governor’s appointees are frustrated by his decision to cancel the June 30 launch, a source close to the board told Streetsblog.

You don’t have to be an insider to guess as much: Hochul appointed people who favor congestion pricing to the board, in part so that they would vote in favor of congestion pricing, what they did in March.

One of his appointees, Sammy Chu, serves on the board of the New York League of Conservation Voters, which supports congestion pricing. Another, Haeda Mihaltses, suggested in comments before her vote in favor of tolling that subways might be in better shape if her former boss, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had been able to enact congestion pricing in 2008. Yet another, John-Ross Rizzo, a prominent physician-scientist and disability advocate, has been outspoken about the importance of congestion pricing to fund accessibility improvements.

Appointees to Mayor Adams’ board also spoke out against the governor’s decision.

“They believe in the vote they took in March. I think some of them were angry,” the source close to the board said of the general mood within the board. after the announcement of the overthrow of the governor. “They felt blindsided.”

Board members received hundreds of emails in support of congestion pricing following Hochul’s announcement. A similar wave of calls and emails hit the state legislature, and at least one pol set up a congestion pricing-specific voice inbox to manage the dam. The callers urged lawmakers not to let Hochul escape the problem with an “IOU” to fund the MTA in the future.

Poles feel the pressure

It’s clear that Hochul and other political leaders had heard only from skeptics and haters about pricing in the run-up to the June 30 launch date — but that changed dramatically after she canceled the plan last Wednesday.

State Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Brooklyn) told Streetsblog that his office had received about 150 calls by the end of Friday afternoon – more than he had ever received from his constituents on any other issue .

“A lot of senators felt the pressure of the phone calls, myself included,” Brisport said after speaking at a rally in support of congestion pricing on Sunday. “It’s mass movements like these that are essential to ensuring that things can happen. To be honest, I think if all this outside pressure hadn’t come in, we would have been in a very different situation at the end. “.

“People who support (congestion pricing) have been silent because they expected this to happen,” Brisport said. “Now Hochul knows that sometimes we don’t always listen to those on one side who make the most noise.”

Hochul’s 180-degree about-face on congestion pricing contradicts her years of touting tolls, although she vacillated between calling it a “temporary” or “indefinite” pause. In recent days, the governor has even amplified anti-toll sentiment: his office has touted statements claiming that congestion pricing is “bad for public safety,” that it will negatively impact Manhattan south of the 60th Street” and that it “displaces already existing pollution, congestion and costs.” communities in difficulty. »

“As governor, I have the ability to get a real sense of what New Yorkers are thinking,” the Buffalo-based chief executive said Friday at a news conference in which she also claimed restaurant customers loved the move.

The MTA, for its part, has distanced itself from the governor — most notably in the agency’s statement Friday evening, which suggested the board will need to “revamp” the MTA’s $55 billion capital program. MTA “to prioritize the most basic and urgent needs” when it meets later this month.

“The MTA Board of Directors will evaluate what changes need to be made to the capital program prior to this month’s board meeting,” the statement said, directly contradicting the governor’s assertions hours earlier that toll revenues were “not essential at the moment”. …to ensure that the link can move forward, that the program is viable.

“Modernization and improvement projects such as electric buses, accessible (ADA) stations and new signals will likely need to be deprioritized to protect and preserve the basic operation and functionality of this more than 100-year-old system” , indicates the MTA press release.

Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for Riders Alliance, which organized Sunday’s rally, said any reduction in the MTA’s capital plan is a betrayal of a funding mechanism created in 2019 after the so-called “summer of hell.”

“Riders and New Yorkers as a whole feel deprived of this solution which is a unique public policy aimed at financing public transportation and at the same time reducing traffic and pollution,” he said.

“That’s why lawmakers have heard about this issue to an unprecedented degree. There is an organized horseman movement growing every day and nothing grows it like crises like the ones the governor just created.”