NEW YORK — Public transportation and environmental groups in New York filed lawsuits Thursday challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision. decision to block a plan to ease traffic and raise billions for the city’s ailing subway system by imposing a new toll on motorists in Manhattan.
The groups argue in two separate lawsuits before the state Supreme Court that the Democrat violated state law and the state Constitution by indefinitely halting the benefits, citing economic concerns.
The program, that was starts on June 30would have charged drivers entering the Manhattan core a toll of about $15, depending on the type of vehicle. The levy is expected to generate about $1 billion annually for public transportation improvements.
The Riders Alliance, the Sierra Club and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, in their lawsuitsaid Hochul’s decision violated the part of the state constitution that guarantees New Yorkers the right to “clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”
“The residents of New York City deserve to be able to breathe,” the lawsuit says.
The City Club of New York, in his suitcalled Hochul’s decision “literally lawless” and “lacked any basis in the law as democratically adopted.”
It was noted that the toll was approved by state lawmakers and signed into law in 2019 by her predecessor, former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after decades of advocacy and public debate.
“No matter how powerful a governor is, that governor has no legal authority — none — to order the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to discontinue congestion pricing,” the group said in the lawsuit.
Hochul, through a spokesperson, dismissed the lawsuits as political propaganda.
“Join us,” spokeswoman Maggie Halley said in an email. “There are now 11 separate congestion pricing lawsuits filed by groups seeking to use the legal system as a weapon to score political points, but Governor Hochul remains focused on what matters: funding public transit, reducing congestion, and protecting working New Yorkers.”
Groups ranging from a state teachers union to New Jersey residents and local truck drivers have filed lawsuits prior to the expected start date of the program in an attempt to block it.
Hochul has maintained that her decision was motivated by economic concerns and conversations with ordinary New Yorkers.
She also suggested raising taxes on corporations to make up for billions of dollars in lost revenue for public transit, a proposal rejected by lawmakers.
City Manager Brad Lander, who joined the groups in announcing the lawsuits on Thursday, said New Yorkers will face “increasing service restrictions, traffic congestion, air quality warnings and inaccessible stations” if the governor’s order stands.
Congestion pricing is a “win-win-win” for New Yorkers because it would generate much-needed revenue to make public transportation “faster, more reliable and more accessible,” while also reducing “costly traffic congestion, carbon emissions, fatal collisions and toxic air pollution,” said Betsy Plum, executive director of the Riders Alliance.
Before her sudden about-face, Hochul was a staunch supporter of the toll, even describing it as “transformative.”
The MTA had also already installed cameras, sensors and license plate readers for the program and signed a more than $500 million contract with a private vendor to operate the toll infrastructure.
