City Comptroller Brad Lander has assembled a legal team that is expected to announce litigation aimed at activating congestion pricing, the city’s fiscal watchdog exclusively told amNewYork Metro Wednesday.
Lawyers with civil rights firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, climate group Earthjustice, and legal aid group Mobilization for Justice have entered into a “joint defense agreement” to launch the Manhattan toll program. Congestion pricing, which had been set to start June 30, would have charged $15 for most motorists to enter Lower Manhattan and raise billions for mass transit improvements — but that was indefinitely frozen when Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a pause last month.
Lander and the legal team believe the pause is illegal, and say they intend to file litigation to force congestion pricing’s launch in the “coming weeks.”
“Elected officials at the city, state, and federal levels fought for years to enact congestion pricing and remain committed to seeing the implementation of this transformative policy,” Lander said in a statement to amNewYork Metro. “We are pleased to announce a team of attorneys from Emery Celli, Earthjustice, and Mobilization for Justice, who entered into a joint defense agreement to explore legal action against the governor’s illegal and ill-conceived decision to cancel congestion pricing.”
“We expect this group to make an announcement concerning litigation in the coming weeks,” continued Lander, who is expected to soon announce he will challenge Eric Adams in the Democratic primary for mayor next year.
The litigants, which include advocates for transit riders, the environment, and civic associations, intend to argue in state court that the pause was illegal under the original 2019 statute authorizing the toll, which stated the MTA “shall” implement a congestion pricing program to fund its capital plan.
“The State Legislature passed the congestion pricing law which mandated the MTA to start congestion pricing and did not give the governor authority to stop it,” said Michael Gerrard, the head of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and an advisor to the plaintiffs.
With funding on ice, the agency now says it has to pause $16.5 billion of investments in modernizing the aging transit system. On Tuesday, the subway system saw major delays and suspensions on numerous lines which, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said on Wednesday, were the result of ancient infrastructure far past its due date for replacement.
The legal team also intends to argue that the pause violates the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the 2019 statute codifying the state’s goals for reducing carbon emissions, as well as the 2022 Green Amendment approved by voters that establishes a right to a “healthful environment.”
The legal team is also developing a lawsuit helmed by riders with disabilities, who will lose out on dozens of subway stations being made accessible without congestion pricing money.
It’s an ironic twist in the congestion pricing saga, which for months was defined by lawsuits seeking to overturn the then-impending toll. A federal judge largely dismissed a combined case filed in New York last month, while litigation remains ongoing in New Jersey.
Gerrard said he feels the suits are “solid” and that the governor “clearly exceeded her authority in stopping this.”
In response, Hochul spokesperson John Lindsay said: “Like the majority of New Yorkers, Governor Hochul believes this is not the right time to implement congestion pricing. We can’t comment on pending or hypothetical litigation.”
The Biden administration has given final approval to the tolling program, but before it can start a document authorizing a “Value Pricing Pilot Program” must be signed by the feds, MTA, and the state and city departments of transportation. Hochul’s Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez appears unlikely to sign in the foreseeable future.
Looming over the litigation is the potential for a Republican administration should Donald Trump win the presidency back in November. The former president has said he intends to terminate the program, which he has called a “disaster for NYC,” should he be reelected.
