Gov. Kathy Hokul on Wednesday withdrew plans to impose vehicle tolls that would have freed up billions of dollars to maintain and expand critical transit systems, leaving the MTA with a $15 billion hole in its capital plan but no clear answers on how to fill it.
After years of planning and hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the MTA, Haukl’s hasty retreat from congestion pricing has thrown the future of long-promised improvements into doubt and left furious MTA officials, employees and advocates wondering what happens next.
“There is no Plan B,” said MTA Board member Midori Valdivia, who once served as chief of staff to the former agency president.
Hokel said she would work with the federal and city governments to find ways to supplement the billions of dollars in revenue the MTA expected to lose by charging drivers tolls in congested areas of Manhattan below 60th Street, but her press office offered no details the next day.
Kathy Wilde, president of the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group, told The City on Thursday that Hawkle had confirmed to her in a text message that the congestion charge suspension was only temporary.
But the governor also faces a possible rebellion from several members of the MTA’s board of directors who oppose his policy change.
“Congestion pricing would be a powerful tool to address the inequities that underpin New York City’s historical underinvestment in the MTA network,” David Jones, president and CEO of the Community Service Institute, said in a statement.
There’s also the question of whether Hockle has as much power as he thinks he does.
“She can’t do this unilaterally,” said Rachel Faus, senior policy counsel at capital watchdog group Reinvent Albany. “She needs the consent of the Legislature and the consent of the MTA board, which is a big ask.”
“Does she have the political capital left to fund the next capital project?”
On January 20, 2022, at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Governor Kathy Hawkle announced plans to convert the existing freight line into the Interboro Express. credit: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor Kathy Hockle Plans fail The decision to indefinitely postpone Hawkle comes as a transportation agency still recovering from the pandemic that has seen ridership and revenue plummet. Central Business District Tolling Plan The congestion pricing plan, whose official name is the “Congestion Pricing Program,” will have a major impact on the current five-year capital plan and the next five-year plan, which the MTA Board must approve by October.
“We’re now in a situation where we think we’ve found a solution and now we’re back to square one,” said Eric Goldwyn, an assistant professor and member of the Transportation Costs Project in the Transportation and Land Use Program at New York University’s Maron Institute.
The city’s Independent Budget Office also issued a warning. New reports Delays come with big costs, he said on Thursday, citing congestion pricing schemes that have been successfully implemented in London, Singapore, Milan and Stockholm.
“Delaying this plan now would disrupt decades of policy and implementation efforts that have consumed immeasurable time, financial and other resources,” the IBO report said.
The suspension comes on top of the MTA already halting the awarding of contracts for most capital construction projects as a result of numerous lawsuits over the congestion charge. Transit officials said projects such as upgrading signals on multiple subway lines, purchasing zero-emission buses, new vehicles and essential maintenance work are directly tied to the $15 billion the MTA expected to get from the congestion charge.
“Right now, funding is being delayed because of this litigation, and there’s important work that can’t get started,” MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres Springer told THE CITY in February. “System improvements, system expansions, extending the Second Avenue subway into East Harlem, making the system more accessible — all of that can’t be done while we’re waiting for the outcome of this litigation.”
The current, more than $50 billion, five-year capital plan is the most ambitious in the MTA’s history, and has funded signal upgrades for several subway lines, installing elevators in a subway system that is largely handicapped-accessible, and buying new buses and subway cars.
The MTA has released renderings of its plan to extend the Second Avenue subway to 125th Street. credit: Rendering via MTA The capital plan also inched forward with the process of extending the Q line at Second Avenue north of 96th Street, with the first contract signed in January for the next phase of the Second Avenue Subway, a $182 million contract to relocate underground utilities before construction begins on the new 106th Street station.
But transit observers are wary of the MTA’s flashy expansion plans, including more work on the Q and Interborough Express Light Rail Line The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will likely be scrapped without congestion pricing funding.
“When funding is tight, it’s all the more dangerous to get carried away with shiny new toys, even if they’re helpful,” Andrew Lane, chairman of the watchdog group Citizens Budget Committee, told THE CITY. “These particular types of projects are siphoning money away from the important investments that keep our system in tip-top shape.”
Among the major planned investments is the MTA’s focus on expanding transportation access for people with disabilities. 2022 Financial Results A class action lawsuit calling for 95% of subway and Staten Island Railroad stations to have elevators or ramps by 2055.
“Governor Hokul proudly claimed credit for the settlement,” a group of five disability rights organizations said in a statement Thursday. “We need to move forward with elevators and other vital transportation projects to ensure New Yorkers with disabilities can fully access the City’s vital transportation system.”
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