MTA agrees to suspend congestion tolls in Hochul – for now

The MTA board will likely reluctantly bow to Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision to suspend the congestion toll – for now.

A resolution drafted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s legal department and obtained by The Washington Post “recognizes” that the nation’s first congestion toll “will not be implemented in June 2024 due to the pause in the program.”

The resolution is expected to be approved in a vote Wednesday at the MTA’s first board meeting since Hochul suddenly announced she was putting the brakes on a plan to charge drivers $15 to enter Midtown Manhattan south of 60th Street – the plan was due to take effect June 30.

But even while acknowledging the pause, the resolution leaves the door open for a revival of the program – and the MTA makes it clear that it wants that.

It notes that the tolling law passed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature in 2019 will remain in effect even while the program is suspended.

The resolution also directs MTA toll collection officials to continue to take “such steps as may be necessary or desirable to implement the program.”

“The CBDTP (Central Business Tolling Program) date is hereby extended from approximately June 2024 until after the signing of the statutory tolling agreement between the project sponsors,” it says, referring to the state Department of Transportation, the city Department of Transportation, the MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels Division and the Federal Highway Administration.

The resolution does not mention Hochul – who wields enormous influence over the agency – by name. The governor appoints many of the panel’s members and its chairman.

MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber is expected to unveil planned cuts on Wednesday as part of a scaled-back capital program to offset a $1 billion-a-year revenue loss to fund $15 billion worth of capital projects.

Transportation officials and critics of the Midtown toll said the announcement of cuts to the program was clearly a ploy to pressure Hochul and lawmakers to revise the Midtown toll or find other sources of revenue.

The toll program must be permanently abolished, said Vito Fossella, a leading opponent of the Staten Island borough and one of the first to file a lawsuit against the program.

“The suspension of the congestion charge is a big victory for the people who opposed it from day one. We are better off now than we were a few weeks ago. But there is still a lot of work ahead of us,” he told the Post on Tuesday.

He called for the repeal of the 2019 law authorizing the toll to prevent the MTA and congestion toll advocates from using it as “bait” to revive the program.

“We want the toll to be transferred abroad,” he joked.

Even Cuomo has backed away from the program he once championed in the face of widespread opposition.

Meanwhile, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli thwarted Hochul’s plans by playing up the doomsday scenario and declaring that planned projects worth $21 billion were under review.

“The loss of congestion toll revenue means that the MTA’s current capital expenditure plan is likely to be smaller than its predecessor, adjusted for inflation… As a result, the plan represents a decline in investment in the metropolitan region’s vital transportation system,” DiNapoli said in an analysis released Tuesday.

“As part of its reprioritization efforts, the MTA will likely need to eliminate approximately $17 billion worth of projects from its current capital plan.”