MTA's Approval of Congestion Pricing Results in Lawsuit from Rockland Electeds

By Rockland Daily Staff

Rockland Takes Legal Action Against Congestion Pricing 

On Wednesday, Rockland County filed a lawsuit against the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) & Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) over the acceptance of its Congestion Pricing plan. 

The complaint, filed on behalf of the County of Rockland and Rockland County Executive Ed Day, seeks an injunction against the commencement of the upcoming Central Business District Toll.

"We are joining the fight against the Congestion Pricing Plan and its grossly unfair impact on Rocklanders and other west of the Hudson commuters," County Executive Day says.

"The residents of Rockland County have been shortchanged by the MTA for generations," New York State Senator Bill Weber says. "Congestion pricing is a dumpster fire. Rockland County does not have a one seat ride into the city and many of our residents have to drive into the city. The Senate needs to repeal congestion pricing."

The complaint contends that the toll is invalid and should be enjoined because:

• It violates the Equal Protection Clause of the New York State and United States Constitutions by discriminating against drivers from outside the central business district and in favor of people who garage their cars within the district. Despite individual drivers from both groups adding equally to congestion, people from outside the CBD have to pay a toll, and those who garage their cars inside do not have to pay a toll unless they leave and re-enter.
• The toll is an illegal tax. The MTA/TBTA, with its wide portfolio of goals, responsibilities, and powers, acts as a government in spending the revenues for the general public benefit. This is the hallmark of a tax. The Legislature did not authorize the MTA/TBTA to implement a tax, but only a toll. The New York State Constitution requires taxation authority to be expressly stated by the State Legislature, which it was not. Thus, the toll constitutes an illegal tax and the MTA/TBTA should be enjoined from implementing it.
• The MTA/TBTA failed to properly analyze the possibility of a toll reduction for persons paying the GWB toll or other tolls for transportation infrastructure. This was a duty of the Traffic Mobility Review Board. The MTA/TBTA should be enjoined from charging Rockland residents the toll until this is properly studied.
  
• Because the toll is implemented to deter people from driving, it is subject to the Eighth Amendment prohibition against excessive fines. The toll constitutes an "excessive fine" because, among other reasons, it arbitrarily penalizes an otherwise legal activity, driving in midtown and lower Manhattan. Also, because it is not charged in any scale to the amount of congestion or other factors intended to be deterred by the toll, even very short drives receive the full impact of the toll.

At the same time, Congressman Mike Lawler released a statement slamming the MTA for voting to approve congestion pricing charges that will cost first responders, nurses, doctors, teachers, and all workers in Manhattan's Central Business District at least $15 a day just to get to work.

"I've been opposed to congestion pricing since day one, and the MTA's decision to charge $15 just to get to work is a slap in the face to hard-working New Yorkers," says Congressman Lawler. "Rather than cleaning up their own mess and addressing the billions in waste, fraud, and abuse within the MTA, Governor Hochul, and Janno Lieber have doubled down on this cash grab, which won't fix the underlying issues at 2 Broadway."

"I'll continue working with a bipartisan group of my colleagues in Congress and in state and local government to advance legislation designed to kill the congestion pricing cash grab, including the Anti-Congestion Tax Act, which I introduced with Congressman Josh Gottheimer at the beginning of my term," concluded Congressman Lawler. "Governor Hochul and the MTA have been warned, and they should expect tangible federal action against this absurd scheme."

“Today’s MTA vote approving congestion pricing is another slap in the face to Rockland residents. Without exemptions for people from counties without good transit options, congestion pricing is nothing but a regressive tax that burdens middle-class and working families most," says former State Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick. "Rocklanders still don’t have consistent and viable public transit options into New York City. Until that happens, this new toll will not reduce traffic coming from Rockland and will unfairly tax working people up to thousands of dollars per year. We must make significant infrastructure investments west of the Hudson River, and Rockland County needs to be exempt from congestion pricing until that investment is completed.”