Plaintiffs and attorneys: Failure to implement plan violates state law
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and a broad coalition of lawyers, plaintiffs, and advocates announced two new lawsuits challenging Governor Kathy Hochul’s indefinite pause of New York City’s congestion pricing plan just three weeks before its implementation date and seeking to compel its implementation as required by law.
The first lawsuit, City Club of New York et al v. Hochul, led by the civil rights firm Emery Celli Abady Brinckerhoff Ward & Maazel LLP, challenges Governor Hochul’s authority to single-handedly block implementation of the 2019 MTA Reform and Traffic Mobility Act, passed by both houses of the State Legislature and signed into law by the then-governor, which mandated the design, development, building, and operation of the Central Business District Tolling Program, commonly known as congestion pricing.
The second lawsuit, Riders Alliance v. Hochul, led by the environmental litigation nonprofit Earthjustice, challenges Governor Hochul’s decision on the basis of New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which requires New York to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030, and requires state officials to act in a manner consistent with mandated targets. This lawsuit also alleges that the Governor’s decision violates the state constitutional right to clean air and a healthy environment that was added to the state constitution in 2021 by an overwhelming 70% of voters.
The suits argue that the Governor’s failure to enact congestion pricing violates both laws, and the success of either will result in the implementation of New York City’s congestion pricing plan.
“When Governor Hochul halted congestion pricing last month, she singlehandedly deprived millions of subway and bus riders of $15 billion worth of transit improvements like more frequent trains, new subway lines, faster buses and greater accessibility — and she also violated two state laws and the state constitution,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “If her action is not reversed, hard-working New Yorkers on their way home after a long day, will experience increasing service cuts, gridlock, air quality alerts, and inaccessible stations. Thanks to these two lawsuits being brought by Riders Alliance, Sierra Club, the City Club, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, and our broader coalition, New Yorkers have a fighting chance at the world-class public transit, reduced traffic, and better air quality we all deserve.”
Details of each suit follow:
City Club of New York et al v. Hochul
- Petitioners: The City Club of New York, residents of the Central Business District (to be named)
- Counsel: Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel
- Respondents: Governor Kathy Hochul, New York State Department of Transportation (DOT), New York State DOT Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
- Legal basis: Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP) (NY Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1704): Article 78 of NY Civil Practice Law and Rules provides an avenue to challenge the states failure to implement congestion pricing, as required by legislation passed in 2019.
Filing: View here.
Riders Alliance v. Hochul
- Petitioners: Riders Alliance, Sierra Club, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
- Counsel: Earthjustice
- Respondents: Governor Hochul, New York State DOT, New York State DOT Commissioner Dominguez, MTA
- Legal basis: Section 7.2 of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA): The Governor and New York State agencies, including NYS Department of Transportation and the MTA, are required to act in a manner consistent with statewide greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. This lawsuit is also based on the environmental rights provision of the New York State Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
Filing: View here.
New York City’s congestion pricing plan was set to begin on June 30 and funnel an estimated $1 billion to the MTA annually — for projects like extending the Second Avenue Subway to West Harlem, installing elevators and accessibility improvements at stations that don’t have them, upgrading outdated signals, and keeping the system in a state of good repair.
After years of planning, extensive public testimony, approvals from multiple layers of government, and hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure spending reliant on the funds from congestion pricing, Governor Hochul announced an “indefinite pause” to New York City’s congestion pricing plan just three weeks before its implementation date. The failure to implement congestion pricing has created a $15 billion shortfall in the MTA’s 2020-2024 Capital Program. The failure to implement congestion pricing will forgo critical benefits to New York City’s climate and transportation goals such as cutting carbon emissions, improving air quality, making mass transit more accessible and efficient, and reducing traffic injuries and fatalities region wide. In response to the Governor’s about-face, Comptroller Lander worked with advocates to assemble a coalition of legal experts and impacted parties to challenge the Governor’s last-minute reversal in court.
“Subway and bus riders won congestion pricing and we’re not giving up our victory just because Governor Hochul broke the law,” said Betsy Plum, Executive Director of the Riders Alliance. “After years of working closely with the governor and MTA to start the program, her betrayal of public transit left us no choice but to go to court. We’re filing today’s case because congestion pricing will be a win-win-win for all New Yorkers, with better transit, freer flowing traffic and the quality of the air we breathe. We’re grateful for the good company and hard work of our fellow plaintiffs, our attorneys at Earthjustice, Comptroller Lander and his team.”
“Governor Hochul’s actions blocking congestion pricing are plainly unlawful and an egregious example of executive overreach,” said Attorney Andrew G Celli, Jr. “This lawsuit upholds the law as written and seeks to ensure that all public officials act within the scope of their authority. No one, not even a governor, is above the law.”
“We have assembled a first-rate legal team,” said Michael Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School. “The closer we all looked at Governor Hochul’s action blocking congestion pricing, the clearer it became that it was not only environmentally and economically destructive, it was also legally indefensible.”
“The decision to indefinitely pause New York City’s congestion pricing program is already having negative consequences across the region and the nation – billions of dollars of cutbacks to the city’s transit lifeline; purchases of modern rail cars and electric buses for Metro North and the Long Island Rail Road scrapped; thousands of jobs building transit equipment at risk in upstate New York; and adoption of congestion pricing in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco stalled,” said Eric A. Goldstein, Senior Attorney and New York City Environment Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “But as former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan once said: ‘Ultimately, enforcement of the law is what really counts.’ So we are especially grateful to Comptroller Brad Lander for assembling a super-group of lawyers to ensure that the laws of the State of New York requiring implementation of congestion pricing and protection of our environment will be followed.”
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