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MANHATTAN (CN) — Federal judges in New York on Monday separately denied two bids to block the imminent launch of America’s first “congestion pricing” toll on drivers entering the busiest roads in Manhattan.
New York’s Central Business District Tolling Program plan, set to begin Jan. 5, 2025, includes a $9 toll for passenger cars driving south of 60th Street in Manhattan during peak traffic hours — down from the $15 price that was initially approved by the Manhattan Transit Authority to pump $15 billion for improvements into the city’s 100-year-old transportation system.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in a written ruling denied motions in Manhattan federal court from a group of detractors — truckers, unionized public school teachers, politicians and other New York residents — who sought a preliminary injunction to put the state’s congestion pricing program on hold as their respective civil cases are litigated.
Liman, a Donald Trump appointe, denied the consolidated plaintiffs’ motion to halt the congestion pricing program on grounds of purported violations of the dormant commerce clause, the constitutional right to travel, the supremacy clause, the New York State Green Amendment and the New York State Administrative Procedure Act.
“Plaintiffs fail to establish a likelihood of success on the merits for any claim, do not show that they would be irreparably injured absent an injunction, and do not show that the balance of the equities and the public interest support an injunction,” he wrote in the 111-page ruling.
The challengers, Liman concluded, could be sufficiently refunded on tolls they paid under the congestion pricing program if they successfully overturn the congestion pricing program.
Later in the day, U.S. District Cathy Seibel, ruling from the bench at the federal courthouse in White Plains, New York, similarly denied motions for a preliminary injunction to block the rollout of the congesting pricing program filed in a pair of challenges brought by neighboring Rockland and Orange Counties.
The two counties brought constitutional claims under the right to travel, the equal protection clause, the due process clause and the excessive fines clause, in addition to unauthorized tax claims.
Seibel, a George W. Bush appointee, repeatedly concluded that the Legislature had authorized congestion pricing, and the plan’s charges are a toll, rather than an illegitimate tax or a fee.
“Unfair or unwise is not unconstitutional,” she said as she denied the counties’ effort to enjoin the law.
The judge advanced proceedings in the case to filings on a motion to dismiss, but told the parties she was amenable to changing the schedule if they choose to settle the dispute.
In June, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she would be putting an indefinite freeze on the rollout of New York City’s congestion pricing program, which was set to take effect at the end of the month.
Hochul faced criticism in June when she announced the indefinite halt on the program just weeks before its planned implementation. She claimed that the toll adds “another burden to working and middle class New Yorkers” in their efforts to financially recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Five months later, Hochul announced she would unpause the program, charging drivers a base amount of $9 that will increase to $15 in three years.
President-elect Trump has vowed to “terminate” congestion pricing his first week back in office. He told the New York Post that he “strongly disagree[s]” with Hochul’s revival of the program, which he called “the most regressive tax known to womankind.”
House Republicans penned a letter to Trump petitioning him to kill the program when he takes office in 2025.
Congestion pricing was signed into law in 2019 when then-Governor Andrew Cuomo approved it in the state’s budget.
The program, a form of which exists in other large cities like London, Singapore and Stockholm, is slated to reduce traffic and pollution in New York City’s busiest streets while raising much-needed funds for the city’s transit system.
Hochul is still fighting a pending challenge in New Jersey federal court from the mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, who wants Hochul to scrap the program completely.
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