A broad set of transportation advocacy and business organizations wrote to New York State legislators this week and urged them to tell Governor Hochul to obey the state’s 2019 congestion pricing law.
In their letter, the groups describe how the Governor’s unilateral suspension of congestion pricing in June 2024 will have disastrous consequences for public transit in the New York metropolitan region, endanger thousands of jobs, and raise major questions about the state’s commitment to its accessibility, environmental justice and climate goals.
Congestion pricing was mandated by law in to fund $15 billion of the MTA’s 2020-2024 capital investment program. After Governor Hochul “paused” congestion pricing this June, the Legislature refused to consider nebulous proposals by the Governor on how to replace it.
In the coming legislative session, the Governor and legislators will have to take up the MTA’s new proposal for its 2025-2029 capital program, even while funding for the 2020-24 program suffers a huge gap from the Governor’s suspension of congestion pricing.
The letter details these points:
- Despite the Governor’s rhetoric of concern for NYC’s recovery, vehicle traffic in Manhattan is at record levels and historically slow speeds.
- The Governor’s unilateral suspension of congestion pricing violates NY State’s 2019 climate law. Congestion pricing is a part of the law’s implementation plan.
- MTA has suspended work on $16.5 billion in critical capital investments including subway signal modernization, transit station accessibility, new subway, bus and train rolling stock purchases and large system expansion efforts.
- MTA is due to release its next capital program for 2025-2029 shortly, which the State Comptroller said in a report last week could cost as much as $92 billion. It will require a big funding lift from the state government – up to $50 billion in state revenues and MTA borrowing according to the comptroller – that will only be made harder by the suspension of congestion pricing.
- Suspension of congestion pricing also affects MTA’s operating budget through greater maintenance needs and higher borrowing costs, pressuring fares and day to day service quality.
- Because federal transit aid works on a matching-funds basis, suspending congestion pricing jeopardizes large-scale federal aid for system improvements and expansion.
- The loss of congestion pricing is blatantly regressive, helping more wealthy and subsidized drivers while harming lower income transit users. Replacement revenue sources mentioned since June have generally been classically regressive taxes.
- The Governor’s action is a huge setback for transit system accessibility, suspending 23 subway and two LIRR station elevator projects.
- The Governor’s action is a huge setback for the MTA’s zero emission bus program, suspending needed work to adapt and upgrade bus depots in high-pollution neighborhoods across the system.
- Loss of congestion pricing funds sets up unhealthy internal competition between expensive system expansion projects and broad system repair and upgrades like the Second Avenue Subway.
- The Governor’s action puts jobs across the state at risk. Reinvent Albany calculates congestion pricing suspension puts more than 100,000 jobs across the state at risk. The MTA contracts much of its capital project work to outside private vendors — including several in Central and Western New York and other parts of the state.
The letter notes that leading cities around the world continue to build transit capacity and operate well-maintained systems, while increasingly emphasizing streets and public space for people over car dependence. New York was on a path in this direction until the Governor’s about-face on congestion pricing in June. Now New York State is signaling that government in New York cannot execute on ambitious, world-leading initiatives, and has set a tone of failure regarding the state’s climate and transportation goals. It urged legislators to continue support for congestion pricing into the 2025 legislative session.