The MTA board voted Wednesday to officially put its plan to introduce a congestion charge on hold, complying with calls from Governor Kathy Hochul, even though the move creates a funding gap now estimated at $16.5 billion.
Despite calls from project supporters that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority move forward with its Central Business District Tolling Program, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said the agency had no choice but to follow Hochul’s order and indefinitely suspend the nation’s first congestion toll plan, even if it meant postponing several system expansion projects, and instead focus on basic maintenance work necessary to keep the system running.
“We live in the real world,” Lieber told reporters after the MTA’s monthly board meeting. “We are not plotting to stage a coup against New York State.”
After years of supporting the congestion charge, Hochul ordered a halt to the plan earlier this month, three weeks before it was due to come into effect., and cited concerns about affordability. IIn a statement Wednesday, Hochul reiterated her intention to work with the MTA to further develop “a comprehensive approach to financing” its capital needs.
WHAT TO KNOW
- The MTA Board officially approved on Wednesday approved a measure to suspend the congestion charge indefinitely. This was done at the direction of Governor Kathy Hochul, who had previously supported the measure but said New Yorkers could not currently afford the new tolls.
- The postponement costs The MTA has allocated $16.5 billion for capital budgets, officials said yesterday, including bonds that would have been financed with toll revenue, federal matching funds for projects and $500 million spent on unused toll infrastructure.
- The MTA postpones several planned projects to address the funding deficit, but relatively few affected the Long Island Rail Road.
“While the next budget schedule may require temporary adjustments to the schedule for certain contracts, New Yorkers have no reason to worry that planned projects will not be implemented,” Hochul said.
Despite Hochul’s assurances, MTA officials painted a bleak picture of their finances at the meeting in Manhattan. Public transit advocates gathered in large numbers to show their support for the congestion charge and to express their anger at Hochul for abandoning the plan, at least temporarily.
“I thought there was going to be a pretty strong reaction to this terrible mistake, but it’s been much more violent than I expected,” said Pete Sikora, senior adviser for New York Communities for Change, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit focused on social and economic issues, at a rally outside MTA headquarters before the meeting. “People are really mad at the governor.”
The MTA’s Central Business District Tolling Program – debated for decades and passed into state law in 2019 – would have charged most vehicles $15 to travel below 60th Street in Manhattan during rush hour. The goal of the measure was to reduce traffic in Manhattan, improve air quality and generate $1 billion in annual toll revenue for MTA infrastructure.
The MTA planned to use the funds to finance $15 billion worth of projects. The agency is expected to lose another $1 billion in federal funding and $500 million in toll infrastructure costs that cannot be recouped without the toll revenue.
The vote was the same as it was when the proposed toll was approved in December and the congestion toll was passed in March. Only Nassau MP David Mack, a vocal opponent of the congestion toll, voted no. Mack opposed the latest proposal because it reiterated the board’s commitment to implement the congestion toll at a later date.
“I want the MTA to grow. I want everyone to be happy. But there are many other ways to make that happen,” Mack said before casting his vote. “We just have to find them.”
Hochul-appointed board member Sammy Chu of Lindenhurst expressed disappointment at the failure of what he called the most significant “behavior change initiative … in a generation.”
While Chu acknowledged the affordability concerns raised by opponents, he said many of them were “solvable.”
“Unless we have the courage to understand that we will not achieve the desired changes without inconvenience, we will not move forward with such policies,” Chu said.
The proposal before the MTA board asked members to vote to “recognize” the governor’s pause and delay the new implementation date for the congestion charge “until the required final agreement” has been “worked out” by the project’s sponsors, including the state Department of Transportation, which takes contracts from Hochul.
With $28.5 billion in projects planned and only $12 billion in funds remaining, the MTA will focus primarily on restoring the line to “basic good condition,” projects that could involve federal funds, and purchasing trains — including additional LIRR cars to meet the demand for the additional service that came with the opening of Grand Central Madison.
The LIRR’s cuts are far smaller than those at other MTA entities, including New York City Transit’s bus and subway systems. Lieber said “the stakes are lower” on Long Island because most of the LIRR projects in the current capital program are already funded or even completed. These include several projects to improve station accessibility on the Babylon Line.
The only LIRR-specific projects included in the published list of congestion-related losses are the “potential cancellation” of planned renovations of Hollis and Forest Hills stations and the purchase of “passenger and work locomotives.” MTA officials later said that planned work on the LIRR’s Harold Interlocking in Queens, related to the new service to Grand Central Madison, is also on hold.
At stake are system expansion projects, including the Second Avenue Subway. The MTA will reallocate $3 billion in allocated funds to the effort and “sacrifice” $2 billion in federal grants to the project. Some subway signal modernization projects, planned improvements to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the purchase of electric city buses, and various other infrastructure and technology improvements will also be put on hold.
Lieber said the MTA will “work with everyone,” including Hochul, to find a new source of funding and “sustain and revitalize” congestion pricing, including keeping the tolling infrastructure “in working order so that it is ready when the temporary suspension is actually lifted.”
Rachel Fauss, senior policy adviser at Reinvent Albany, a government accountability nonprofit, expressed skepticism about Hochul’s promise to find the money the MTA needs. She said her organization estimates that suspending the congestion tolls could put 100,000 New York jobs at risk.
“This completely contradicts the governor’s statement that her decision is about affordability,” Fauss said. “We believe the economic impact is enormous and there is no viable alternative.”
