A Manhattan judge allowed lawsuits challenging New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pause of congestion pricing to proceed on Friday — but not before declaring, “I got a ride into Manhattan and the traffic was terrible. Can’t someone do something about it?”
Judge Arthur Engoron, who made the crack upon taking the bench, is presiding over two lawsuits brought by a coalition of groups asking him to order Hochul to turn on the tolls charging drivers who travel south of 60th Street.
His ruling allows the cases to proceed, though the slow pace of litigation may conflict with Albany’s legislative calendar. Hochul has pledged to have a new plan for congestion pricing around January, when the state Legislature goes back into session.
During oral arguments on Hochul’s motion to dismiss the cases, Engoron repeatedly questioned the state’s lawyers about the governor’s authority to pause the plan in the first place. The judge asked if the move was just a “backdoor veto” of the program.
Lawyer Alan Schoenfeld, who represents Hochul, said the 2019 law initiating congestion pricing gave Hochul power to withhold her signature from paperwork that would have allowed the program to go into effect.
Schoenfeld’s argument revolved around legal technicalities about the federal approval process for the tolls, prompting Engoron at one point to interject, “Oh, come on.” (Engoron grabbed national headlines while overseeing former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.)
One of the lawsuits was filed by the City Club of New York and two residents of Hell’s Kitchen. It argues that Hochul violated the 2019 law and had no right to halt the program.
“It’s very clear that the Legislature puts the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in charge of congestion pricing,” said Andrew Celli, a lawyer for the City Club of New York. “It did that for a really good reason, which is to make it nonpolitical, to avoid exactly what’s happened here, which is political actors sticking their nose into what should be a legal and technological issue.”
The Sierra Club, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance and Riders Alliance filed the other suit, which focuses on a 2021 amendment to the state’s constitution that guarantees New Yorkers a right to “clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”
Hochul’s last-minute pause of the tolls scuttled more than $16 billion in planned MTA projects. The list included accessibility improvement at 23 stations; signal upgrades on the A, B, C D, F and M lines; and more than $1 billion in new subway cars and buses.
While the MTA approved its next five-year capital plan this week, the missing billions from congestion pricing continue to be a significant concern within the agency. Hochul and state lawmakers must figure out how to address that missing funding, while also figuring out revenue for at least $33 billion tied to the next capital plan.
Lawyers on Friday said the MTA could have already made $152 million in revenue if the congestion tolls had been activated on June 30 as planned.