The first board meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) since Governor Kathy Hochul put a temporary pause on congestion pricing was held on Wednesday, June 26 at its lower Manhattan headquarters.
Elected officials, industry experts, advocates and opponents had two minutes to give their thoughts and comments on the matter. More than 130 members of the public signed up to either speak in person or from a remote location. In the end, the vote was 10 to 1 to pause the tolling plan south of 60th Street in Manhattan.
Previous attempts to control congestion on Manhattan’s streets and avenues have obviously proven to be a failure. Today there are separate lanes for buses and bicycles and parking spots for yellow cabs and livery drivers. However, drivers still have to contend with double-parked delivery vehicles, speeding motorcyclists, and road construction created by city road and subway repairs which close down a lane of traffic even in the middle lane of a three-lane avenue; in addition, horse and buggy rides for tourists and double-decker sightseeing buses obstruct what would otherwise be clear traffic lanes.
For those who wish to pay the proposed $15 toll to drive below 60th Street from the East Side to the West Side, special parking for city vehicles will keep increasing and side-street parking will be consumed by Manhattan residents and visitors to the Big Apple during specific times. If trying to find a parking space on a side street is not your cup of tea, storing your car in a paid parking lot costs up to $100 a day in some sections of Manhattan.
If congestion pricing is successful, it would push motorists off the road and into the subways where, even at rush-hour, riders are already packed like sardines into silver-colored transports. That will only cause longer wait times for the underground modes of transportation. If mass transit riders want to take the subway, they risk being thrown onto the tracks, being pummeled by other riders, and being attacked for just no reason other than the way they look or dress, such as a Jewish commuter wearing a kippah.
Another manifestation of congestion pricing will be additional motor vehicle traffic in the other four boroughs, including The Bronx and Brooklyn where asthma rates are soaring, negatively impacting the health of residents from cradle to grave.
At a recent news conference, MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber, the only Jewish member among the governor’s appointees, said, “Where we’re focused right now is how do we retool, reprioritize, and shrink the capital plan to deal with the money that we know we have? There is $28.5 billion of work left in this capital program and we now have $13 billion to do it, so we have to make some hard choices.”
Instead of simply complaining and pointing fingers between the agency and the governor, one member of the Assembly actually offered a solution to plug the financial hole. “I believe there are other alternatives to help fund the MTA. I propose an Adopt-A-Station or Adopt-A-Bus Stop program. Just like we have Citi Field that gives naming rights to CitiBank [which] pays an annual fee, I believe this is a way to bring in revenue for the MTA,” said Assemblyman David Weprin (D – Holliswood, Queens), who is Jewish. “The Governor’s decision is a deeply pragmatic response to the crescendo of public concerns that I and many others have raised for years. Much of my district in Queens is a public transit desert and will be one of the most adversely impacted by the proposed congestion pricing tax. The middle-class communities in New York City cannot afford a tax hike in the form of congestion pricing, which will add hundreds of dollars in additional monthly expenses for working-class families and will serve as yet another tax on New York’s middle-class.”
Most of the politicians speaking at the meeting opposed the Governor’s action.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat who is Jewish, has put together a coalition of transportation industry experts to consider suing the city and state over the indefinite pause of congestion pricing. “If it doesn’t go into effect, the MTA’s cost of borrowing will go up, operating expenses will increase, and indeed service reliability, safety, frequency will all be jeopardized,” Lander told the MTA board and staff at the meeting. “Do everything you can to take congestion pricing off pause to make clear to the governor and the state transportation commissioner the steps to implement it are legally required so that we can move New York forward.”
Senator Andrew Gounardes (D – Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) told the attendees via remote hookup, “As you are looking to cut this capital program, do not divest from the very communities that you are hearing from. We built political support for this program on the promise of elevators, signals, trains, platforms, and better buses for all.”
Another Brooklyn Senator also opposed the pause. “I urge the MTA Board to move forward with congestion pricing as scheduled. My constituents deserve clean air and safe streets when they travel into Manhattan,” said Senator Jabari Brisport (D – Crown Heights, Brooklyn). “It is widely reckless and dangerous as a precedent for the governor to indefinitely postpone the implementation of a law that was passed and signed. You cannot run a state on the last-minute whims of one singular person.”
Yet one Senate Democrat speaking from a remote location supported the pause of the congestion pricing plan. “I want to commend the governor for putting a pause on congestion pricing. Not only would this have a detrimental impact on my constituents’ pockets and the cost of it, but the environmental issues are a major, major problem,” Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D – West Brighton, North Shore, Staten Island) said. “The North Shore of Staten Island, which is mainly Black and Hispanic, would be detrimentally impacted. It is not right to place one borough over the other. We encourage you to keep up the pause.”
Only one member of Congress spoke about the stalled congestion pricing plan. He has a vested interest in supporting the plan. “As a longtime advocate for congestion pricing and the congressional representative for the Central Business District, I find Governor Hochul’s indefinite pause of congestion pricing misguided, harmful and likely unlawful,” said Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D – Manhattan), a longtime ally of Hochul. “It is disappointing the Governor has chosen to align herself with a small vocal minority of drivers who don’t qualify for exemptions or discounts over millions of daily MTA riders and countless others who stand to benefit from congestion pricing were promised a decrease in traffic, gridlocks, safer streets and cleaner air.
“The Governor’s pause in congestion pricing has far-reaching implications for the MTA, which now faces a $15 billion revenue loss, putting crucial signal and accessibility projects at risk,” Nadler continued. “It is also estimated that 87,600 jobs related to MTA vendors alone are now at risk. We have to regard the effects of congestion in the CBD [Central Business District], which would be alleviated by congestion pricing. The MTA is the lifeline of the New York City metropolitan area and congestion pricing is the best and only solution to get our transit system back on track.”
A Republican upstate congressman told The Jewish Press that the MTA is using upstate taxpayers as their ATM. “There is no excuse for expecting the rest of the taxpayers in New York or taxpayers in America to shoulder the burden of the most bloated, broken bureaucracy in the world, the MTA. We are not going to allow Americans or upstate New Yorkers to become an ATM for that public authority,” said Congressman Marc Molinaro (R – Catskill, Greene County). “It was a horrifically embarrassing and a politically inexcusable executive failure for the governor of the state of New York, without any warning, to stand before the state and toss aside the millions of dollars that have already been committed to congestion pricing with no plan. I don’t know why it took her so long to figure out the public does not support a policy she embraced. The way she engaged in it and now wants to shift the burden to taxpayers across the state of New York is a failure of leadership, a lack of awareness, and a divorce from the reality that ordinary middle class New Yorkers face every day.”
An Assembly Democrat whose district is also fully engulfed within the CBD said he is sick of seeing wall-to-wall cars idling while waiting to enter the Lincoln Tunnel. “This is good, sound environmental policy, economic policy. Figure out a way to phase it in. Do whatever you need to do, but we needed congestion pricing yesterday. We’re behind the curve on that. New York City should be the leader on this, not postponing it due to politics or an election,” said Assemblyman Tony Simone (D – Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan). “We are in the congestion zone. We are highly affected by this really dumb decision to delay congestion pricing.”
A citizen representative to the MTA board, Lisa Daglian, told the panel there is “doom, gloom, and despair, with a dark cloud hanging over the heads of transit riders.” Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a nonvoting member, said, “Improving air quality and addressing the climate crisis will not be met by throwing an I.O.U. at the problem. Hundreds of millions of dollars in mitigations for and across environmental justice communities will benefit residents across the region, including New Jersey. They just need congestion pricing to start. Even governors can’t arbitrarily decide to change the agreed upon toll at the eleventh hour. It’s not the way the process works.
“Governor Hochul: Congestion pricing is the law,” Daglian concluded. “Un-pause the pause and flip the switch.”
One MTA board member focused his ire on the governor and state lawmakers. “There is a lack of leadership from our handlers in Albany. This is the clearest example of it. If you want an example of why the MTA was over budget, was behind schedule, this is it. Political interference,” said Norman Brown, legislative director of the New York State Council of Machinists. He is a nonvoting member of the board and resides in Brooklyn. “I understand the politicians have tough decisions to make. They have to get elected. If they don’t get elected, then we’ll get another politician to make the decisions. What we have is a leadership deficit in Albany…I don’t know what happened here.”
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso told the board members, “Transportation is one of the greatest equalizers when it comes to economic mobility and development for poor people that are Black and brown. We are moving away from all this for politics.”
Fare beaters were a great concern for one Republican Assemblyman at the meeting. “This plan would have been to the benefit of a few to the detriment of many,” said Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R – Great Kills, Staten Island). “Any conversation in regards to the funding of the MTA should start with the more than $700 million that the MTA loses every year to toll and fare evasion.
“I recently took the subway from downtown Manhattan to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. As I entered the subway station, I counted no less than six people walking through the open door with no one to stop them and no one had paid the fare,” he shared. “When we put an end to the $700 million that the MTA loses to the fare and toll evaders then we can finally start the conversation about funding for the MTA. The MTA is to provide a service to New York City and to New York state, not be a detriment to the taxpayers.”
An East Side Manhattan Democrat was not at all pleased by the Governor’s abrupt pause in congestion pricing, but his plea to the board fell on deaf ears. “I encourage this board to allow congestion pricing to begin because it is what New York has been asking for. People will get used to congestion pricing like they get used to everything else,” said Harvey Epstein, (D – East Village, Manhattan). “Environmental issues, congestion issues, fiscal issues – congestion pricing solved all three at the same time. What are we saying to the advocates and the people who have been fighting over the last five years to make sure this gets started?”
Yet other speakers had a different view.
Real estate developer and board member David Mack supported the governor’s pause on congestion pricing. “I applaud the governor for postponing this,” said Mack, 82, of Great Neck in Nassau County. Mack, a real estate developer and the founding board member of the Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, was the only board member to vote “no” on the original congestion pricing resolution. “As I did before, I voted against congestion pricing. We don’t want any detrimental fallout with all of lower Manhattan,” he said. Hopefully, the state, the legislature, the governor, and all the elected officials will come up with other ways to fund this besides the tolling of lower Manhattan.”
One advocate opposing congestion pricing wanted board members to know this solution is not a panacea. “The revenue generated from the congestion pricing tax will only be $900 million, which is less than the statutory obligation of the $1 billion that’s needed. That translates to the proposed $15, which will now undoubtedly increase over time. London’s congestion pricing started at $6 20 years ago and today it is $25. That is what is going to happen with working-class New Yorkers,” said Susan Lee, president of New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing Tax. “There will be an increase in pollution, more so than when it was first pointed out. Are we saying to people in The Bronx, ‘We’re going to send pollution up your way as long as we build an asthma center. We’re going to have babies with asthma but we’re going to have an asthma center for them.’ That is not an option for me.”
A board member who also heads a business group had her focus on how congestion pricing impacts her membership. “The commitment to finding other funding is important while we all wait for congestion pricing to be put back on track, pun intended,” said Lisa Sorin, president of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce and its first female president. “As a representative of businesses in my borough, higher taxes that add additional burdens to our small businesses who have already faced unbelievable costs and regulations to run their business is not an option. My fiduciary responsibility is not only to this board but to those businesses that look to me to advocate on their behalf.”
One analyst decried the slogan, “Un-pause Congestion Pricing ASAP; Use Available Money for State of Good Repair.” “Investing in a state of good repair and basic modernization always should have been the top priority before capacity expansion. Make no mistake, the MTA’s ability to proceed for some time without congestion pricing revenue does not mean the pause is painless,” said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission. “It accelerates the opening of an operating budget hole and risks wisely sourced financing that produces trifecta benefits. We do have enough time to be smart, but we don’t have time to waste.”
The head of the MTA was hopeful everything will work out for the best. “We’re expecting there will be a solution to the $15 billion. The governor did say she is going to do it. I take her at her word,” said MTA’s CEO Lieber. “We’re also a business-like organization so we have to plan for downside scenarios. It’s just the nature of running a business of this scale and complexity. I am optimistic. It’s clear that there is going to be a lot more than $15 billion needed to address not just the state of good repair but the improvement and expansion needs of the MTA. We’re going to need Albany with the help of Washington to step up for the next MTA capital program.
“Where we’re focused right now is how do we retool, reprioritize, and shrink the capital plan to deal with the money that we know we have,” Lieber continued. “There’s $28.5 billion of work left in this capital program and we now have $13 billion to do it, so we have to make some hard choices. I’m in the business of running an agency with 70,000 employees with an $18 billion budget that New Yorkers depend on and for many New Yorkers is their single interaction with the government every day,” Lieber concluded.
When asked about the assistance U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has offered to close the budget gap, Lieber said, “We welcome all support from our elected representatives in Washington. I talked to a lot of them in recent weeks. I’ve talked to Chuck Schumer, the mayor, the governor, Congressmen Adriano Espaillat, Ritchie Torres, Dan Goldman, Jerrold Nadler. Everyone is shouldering the wheel to help the MTA in Washington and we welcome Senator Gillibrand as well.”
Gillibrand told The Jewish Press she was going to try to get the necessary money for the MTA from the transportation bill that is being marked up now. She also said mass-transit money can be obtained from the transportation bill.
However, according to Molinaro, an upstate Republican whose district borders the MTA region, “We will not take up the next Intermodal Transportation bill until 2025. That bill gets considered next year.”
