Not content to sit on the sidelines and watch New Jersey try to sue the federal government over congestion pricing, the MTA is joining the fight.
On Friday, the MTA asked a federal court in New Jersey if it could join with the federal government to help fight a lawsuit filed by Governor Phil Murphy over the MTA’s congestion pricing program.
Murphy filed the suit against the US Department of Transportation in July, claiming the federal agency should not have approved the MTA’s environmental assessment, which he deemed inadequate.
Murphy argued that it was a “rubber stamp” and that the MTA didn’t do enough study on how the tolls could increase congestion in his state from vehicles searching for a cheaper crossing.
In court documents filed late Friday, the MTA accused the state of New Jersey of trying to kill the tolling program entirely.
“New Jersey’s ultimate aim is clear: to prevent implementation of a landmark program mandated by New York state law,” court papers show. “While New Jersey professes to be ‘conceptually open to traditional congestion pricing,’ its real complaint is the supposed lack of revenues flowing to it.”
The MTA’s congestion pricing program is expected to go into effect next May. It could charge drivers as much as $23 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street during peak commuting hours.
By state law, the transit agency is required to generate $1 billion a year in revenue. All of that money would go toward the MTA’s transit improvements.
New Jersey officials have accused the agency of trying to enrich itself on the backs of drivers from their state.
New Jersey congressman Josh Gottheimer accused the agency of minimizing the adverse effects of the plan on New Jerseyans, writing that it would “increase air pollution affecting our children and families,” and that “because of the Congestion Tax moving pollution elsewhere, the MTA is going to have to set up an asthma treatment program.”
“If that’s not an admission of…
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