Manhattan Congestion Toll Faces Last-Ditch Legal Fight
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New York’s controversial plan to charge drivers a toll for entering Manhattan’s central business district starting on Jan. 5 is facing a last-ditch challenge from neighboring New Jersey.
New Jersey goes to court Jan. 3 to urge a federal judge to stop the congestion pricing plan’s launch while U.S. transportation officials provide specifics from their environmental review of the project that he ordered earlier this week. The hearing in Newark caps a high-stakes showdown between the two states, with billions of dollars in toll revenue on the line for modernizing New York’s more than century-old transit system.
The traffic control program, the first of its kind in the US, would charge $9 for most drivers entering Manhattan at 60th Street or below. Trucks would pay nearly $15. It’s meant to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority raise $15 billion for its vast and long-neglected network of subways, buses and commuter rails while reducing car and truck traffic and the pollution it creates.
New Jersey, which has called it a “brazen money grab,” argues the plan would increase congestion and tailpipe emissions on its own turf by pushing drivers onto the state’s highways and bridges to skirt the toll.
After surviving other legal challenges, the program was thrust into doubt on Dec. 30 when Judge Leo Gordon ordered the federal transport officials to provide more information about their review and approval of the plan.
Launch or Freeze
In a 72-page opinion, Gordon rejected most of New Jersey’s claims against the program, while requiring the Federal Highway Administration to detail its review. He set a schedule for the process that stretches into February but didn’t address whether it required a delay of the plan’s Jan. 5 launch. That’s the subject of the Jan. 3 hearing.
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New Jersey is expected to urge the judge to issue an emergency order delaying the launch until he reviews the information from the FHWA and decides on the state’s request to clarify or reconsider his decision. The U.S. Justice Department, representing the agency, has argued in court papers that New Jersey is improperly trying to reargue issues Gordon has already decided. The “relatively minimal traffic increases” in some communities doesn’t warrant a halt to the plan, it said.
The MTA contends that New Jersey’s failure to raise new challenges before “the eleventh hour” invalidates its attempt to block the program.
None of the parties commented beyond their briefs.
Fierce Opposition
The congestion pricing plan has spurred fierce opposition from commuters, some environmental groups and even President-elect Donald Trump, who has called it a “massive business killer and tax on New Yorkers” and vowed to stop it. Federal judges have declined to block the program in legal challenges filed in New York.
Separately, the Long Island town of Hempstead sued in state court, alleging that New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision to restart the program after pausing it last year was an illegal attempt to push it through before Trump takes office. A judge has set a January hearing in that case.
Because of the litigation risks, the MTA was planning to commit only $2.9 billion for capital projects last year, a sharp drop from the $12 billion of work it could otherwise enter into. A victory over New Jersey in court could help it put those upgrades back on track.
The case is New Jersey v. US Department of Transportation, 23-cv-3885, US District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark).
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