MTA and NJ still talking settlement terms in congestion pricing lawsuit with tolls slated to start in May
The MTA and New Jersey officials are pushing forward with settlement talks that would end the Garden State’s lawsuit over New York’s coming and congestion pricing program for drivers heading to Midtown and Lower Manhattan.
The third sit-down between the warring sides over the controversial $15 toll is set to take place on Jan. 5 — and comes as MTA chairman Janno Lieber says he is hopeful the agency will still be able to begin charging drivers in May.
“The law is still the law of the state of the New York, as enacted” Lieber told reporters following the agency’s board meeting at its Financial District headquarters on Wednesday. “We’re continuing to work with everybody who has raised questions about how it’s going to be implemented.”
The MTA honcho declined to provide any details about the settlement talks, citing the ongoing litigation.
And he dodged questions about the mounting criticisms from elected officials representing suburban and outer-borough communities where auto ownership is common — including Mayor Eric Adams, who counts eastern Queens and Brooklyn as a key part of his political base and has vocally pushed for more exemptions to the toll in recent weeks.
“Among the many line items in my job description is not being a soothsayer about politics and elected official psychology,” he responded.
The recommended toll program introduced by a state-commissioned task force recommended last month that MTA would charge drivers $15 once per day if they drive onto Manhattan’s streets or avenues south of 60th Street.
Container and articulated trucks would be charged more, while motorcycles would pay $7.50.
The toll would be discounted by 75% during the overnight hours — from 9pm to 5am on weekdays and 9pm to 9am on weekends — as a way to encourage drivers and trucks to move their trips when the streets are less crowded.
Yellow cabs and cars operated for services like Uber would be exempt from the charge, but riders would have a $1.25 or a $2.50 fee, respectively, put on their receipts.
The report’s arrival in November was the first major step forward for the toll program after months of delays — a development that has reignited opposition to the program.
A recent poll by Long Island’s biggest paper, Newsday, found that 72% of voters in Nassau and Suffolk counties oppose the charge.
Hizzoner again criticized the coming charge on Ch. 5-WNYW’s morning show, saying the proposal made by the toll board did not include enough exemptions from the toll — backing criticisms recently leveled by ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who signed the toll into law.
“We cannot do anything that’s damaging to our economic recovery,” Adams added.
City Hall has been pushing to expand the list of exemption requests includes those medical appointments, city employees who opt to drive to work and for yellow cab customers.
The law requires the toll generate $1 billion annually to pay for $15 billion in upgrades for the MTA’s buses, railroads and subways, including new computerized signals that will make commutes more reliable and replacing trains that date back to the 1970s.
The head of the toll board, Carl Weisbrod, said that those requirements mean that any time an exemption is granted, it must be offset with a higher base toll.
His board’s proposal went to the MTA earlier this month, which formally opened the public comment period and will hold a series of hearings before a final vote this spring.
