The South Shore Press covered the machinations around the New York State budget negotiations and Governor Kathy Hochul’s last-minute “pause” of the controversial Congestion Pricing scheme. Now that some time has passed, The South Shore Press is taking a look at the implications of that pause. What happens next? Plenty of people are vocal about the issues caused by the pause.
Hochul suddenly reversed her stance on the Congestion Pricing tax during budget negotiations due to pressure from Democratic Congressional leadership. The toll is broadly disliked across the political spectrum, and Democrats are keen to avoid upsetting voters in an election year, as they aim to gain congressional seats.
Political pressure and points aside, the transit system claims it is in desperate need of funds for necessary repair and maintenance and the trains don’t care about who is a Democrat or who is a Republican.
Hochul’s ‘pause’ means the MTA has to turn on a dime, cancel planned maintenance and upgrades, and focus only on the most needed repairs. They are essentially on an austerity budget.
“Death by a thousand broken switches” is how the outlet ‘amNew York Metro’ described the situation. The MTA reported that subway signals are failing regularly and repairs are needed. Meanwhile, Governor Hochul and the state legislature seemingly have no plan to address the situation.
The MTA has $28 billion in projects to maintain and improve the system with $13 billion to spend right now. Congestion Pricing would have charged drivers $15 to enter downtown Manhattan during peak hours.
The City of New York Independent Budget Office (IBO) projected $400 million in congestion pricing revenue for the balance of 2024 and $1 billion a year after that. Cancelling Congestion pricing “removes the largest source of funding for transit capital plan without a long-term alternative to fund crucial repairs and improvements,’ they said in a statement. The plan was supposed to begin June 30, 2024.
Other than the substantial $1 billion in annual revenue projected from the tax on motorists, significant funds were spent getting ready to implement Congestion Pricing.
The IBO reports that the MTA allocated more than $427 million to plan and build out the infrastructure to implement congestion pricing to date. The MTA penned a contract worth $556 million with the company Transcore to install, operate, and maintain all of the tolling apparatus for the next six years.
The IBO report said, “If the program is not enacted at a future point, MTA investments (taxpayer money) made to date will potentially be written off as bad spending.”
Riders are not too happy about any of this. Advocates for handicapped accessibility have complained that the delays in funding affect the MTA’s ability to continue building out the infrastructure they need to ride the transit system. Twenty-three promised accessibility projects that are now on hold due to Hochul’s ‘pause.'
Meanwhile, the Transport Workers Union and New York City Public Advocate, Jumaane Williams, are taking the MTA to court, accusing the MTA of violating New York State Public Authorities Law by “reducing between 55% and 10% the number of hours buses run between depots in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx."
“It is a decision they made to save money because the lack of congestion pricing revenue is squeezing the operating budget all over the place,” Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer for the TWU, the largest union that represents transit workers, told The City. “This is one of the consequences.”
The lawsuit asks for a temporary restraining stopping MTA “from continuing cuts in bus runs and trips” - and says that Hochul’s pause on congestion pricing is the sole reason.