(The Center Square) — A pair of lawsuits challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul’s suspension of New York City’s congestion pricing plan are headed to court after a state judge refused to grant the governor’s request to dismiss the legal challenges.
The ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron sided with transportation and environmental advocates who allege that Hochul acted illegally by pausing the $15 tolls on vehicles entering Manhattan’s business district.
Engoron, who presided over former President Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial, suggested that Hochul may have overstepped her “ministerial” role in the process by directing the state Department of Transportation not to sign off on a federal agreement finalizing the congestion pricing program.
“Petitioners have stated causes of action sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss,” Engoron wrote in the six-page ruling. “While respondents will have the opportunity to furnish with their answers an administrative record, if one exists, in support of their arguments, there remains a more than plausible argument at this stage that New York state DOT execution of the tolling agreement is ministerial.”
The controversial tolling program, set to start June 30, would have imposed a $15 toll on drivers entering the core of Manhattan to generate about $1 billion annually for public transit system upgrades.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates NYC’s fleet of subways, buses and commuter rail trains, had planned to leverage the funds to borrow $15 billion to upgrade subway signals and stations to make them more accessible, among other projects.
But in June, Hochul abruptly hit the brakes on congestion pricing, announcing that she directed the MTA to “indefinitely” pause the program. She cited the impact on commuters who would be forced to pay higher tolls.
One lawsuit challenges Hochul’s authority to single-handedly block implementation of the 2019 MTA Reform and Traffic Mobility Act, the law that calls for implementing the program. Another claim is that Hochul’s move to suspend congestion pricing violates a constitutional right to clean air and a healthy environment. Both were filed under the state’s Article 78 law, which allows citizens to sue the government to reverse decisions.
Transit and environmental advocates say the legal challenges are necessary to force Hochul to take more aggressive steps to reduce tailpipe pollution and the impact of climate change.
Elizabeth Adams, interim co-executive director at the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said the judge’s decision to allow the cases to proceed “confirms what New Yorkers have been saying: congestion pricing is the law of the land in New York State, and Kathy Hochul can’t govern through YouTube video or blatantly ignore settled law.”
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat running for mayor, praised the ruling and said Engoron “rightfully denied” Hochul’s motion to dismiss two critical lawsuits to restore congestion pricing.
“This is a victory for our broad coalition of transit riders, environmental advocates, and disability justice organizations,” he said in a statement. “This development is a blow to the governor’s misguided belief that she has the ultimate authority to override an established law and remake it to fit her whims.”
