Congestion Pricing Compromise?

Marcia Kramer of CBS New York reports on June 21 on the latest development in the turmoil that the New York governor caused on June 5, jeopardizing the sustainability of public transit in the nation's largest city.

On the one hand, Hochul told CBS News, “Now is not the time to institute a charge, a toll on everyone who comes into Manhattan in this Central Business District.”

But with advocates vowing to sue, she seemed to open up a little wiggle room, hinting that she may be open to discussing a lower fee.

Related in Planetizen:

• Is it Truly the End of NYC Congestion Pricing? June 11, 2024
• Exclusive: Environmentalists Urge Hochul to Rethink Congestion Pricing, June 21, 2024
• Exclusive: New York's Green Amendment and Congestion Pricing, June 7, 2024

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who serves as the City’s chief financial officer, has been outspoken in his criticism of Hochul's arbitrary decision to pause the road pricing project.

“Lander has assembled a collection of stakeholders to develop a legal strategy that would underpin one or more lawsuits seeking to get the central business district toll program back on track,” reported Dana Rubinstein for The New York Times on June 11.

Mr. Lander is planning to outline the likely avenues of litigation at a news conference on Wednesday. The gathering underscores the swelling outrage among environmental and transportation advocates who have spent years persuading the government to enact tolls on drivers entering Manhattan’s core — only to see Ms. Hochul abruptly halt the plan less than a month before it was to go into effect.

At his news conference, Lander announced that he had “worked together with advocates to assemble a coalition of legal experts and impacted parties who intend to challenge the Governor’s last-minute reversal in court,” outlining six statutes, including the aforementioned 2021 Green Amendment, that would provide the basis for their litigation.

“They are going try to argue legislative precedent,” David Birdsell, provost of Kean University in Union, New Jersey, that specializes in urban research, told Kramer on June 12.

"The argument from the environmentalist advocates, people who support congestion pricing, is that this was so difficult to get over the finish line to begin with that putting it back to square one is effectively killing it.”

“Charging less [than $15] could be part of a solution to solve both problems and get congestion pricing started, but there would be pressure on the legislature to come up with a way to make up the difference so the MTA has enough money to start fixing the system,” adds Kramer on June 21.

CBS News videos with Marcia Kramer:

• "Could the cost of congestion pricing come down? Gov. Hochul may be reconsidering $15 toll,” Jun 21

“Our lead argument is the 2019 statute that states the MTA shall implement congestion pricing,”  Michael Gerrard of Columbia Law School tells Kramer at 1:35 in the 3-minute video. [See aforementioned related post]. Gerrard is the co-author of a 3-page 'expert analysis' of the law published in the New York Law Journal on May 9, 2019.

• "George Latimer and Brad Lander | The Point with Marcia Kramer,” Jun 23

“We already spent half a billion dollars on the cameras and the tolling infrastructure," Lander tells Kramer at 15:30 in the 22-minute video. Lander is Kramer's second guest – begins at 10.00. “It's ready to go.”

• Latimer, transit advocates and legal experts threaten legal action, Jun 12

Recent court decision posted here June 23: Judge Rules in Favor of MTA in Congestion Pricing Suit.

The June 20, 113-page decision [pdf] by a Trump-appointed judge to dismiss the lawsuit brought by New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax and two related lawsuits does not bear directly on the June 5 Hochul decision as they were filed earlier.  However, the outcome adds to the importance of the Green Amendment, the topic of a blog post by Planetizen's  Michael Lewyn, as one of the statutes to challenge Hochul's authority to block congestion pricing.

Reporting on the three lawsuits on March 27, 2024, Ry Rivard wrote for POLITICO:

Nevertheless, one of the biggest wild cards in several lawsuits challenging the proposed tolls is the 2021 “green amendment” voters approved to ensure every New Yorker has a state constitutional right to clean air, clean water and “a healthful environment.”