The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is all-in on congestion pricing, despite the latest challenges to its tolling program.
The agency presented new data on congestion pricing revenue at its February board meeting and reiterated its plan to continue business as usual despite the Department of Transportation's attempt to terminate the program.
"If the federal government decides to tear away money, even though New York City is the engine of the state, local and national economy, that has consequences nationally," MTA CEO Janno Lieber said. "We're not going to start to plan for them to do something that we think would be self-defeating for the United States."
The
The MTA is challenging the order in court and Lieber expressed confidence the agency will prevail. The MTA will not end the program without a court order, he added.
The "success of congestion pricing" is "real," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, noting she's heard from constituents who now like the tolls after seeing shortened commutes.
Public transit, Hochul said, is facing "an existential threat in Washington right now."
"I had an interesting trip to the White House," Hochul said. "I did my very best. The fight's not over."
On Monday, the MTA released the data on the first month of congestion pricing.
From January 5 through January 31, the tolls pulled in $48.7 million of revenue, the MTA's co-CFO Jai Patel told the agency's finance committee. The program's expenses totaled $11.1 million.
Both the revenue and the expenses came in below the agency's projections in its November financial plan. The program's net revenue, Patel noted, exceeded projections by $2.1 million.
The MTA hopes that congestion pricing will generate $500 million per year to eventually fund $15 billion of bonds and recoup the $500 million that the agency spent on tolling infrastructure.
The MTA has already issued $900 million of bond anticipation notes that it plans to refund with congestion pricing bonds once the program generates a year's worth of revenue.
The various legal challenges to congestion pricing have not affected the MTA's borrowing strategy, and the agency plans to move forward with debt as needed to fund its capital plans, CFO Kevin Willens said.
"We're confident on congestion pricing revenue," Willens said. "So we will keep borrowing this year as needed to fund the projects."
The board approved an amendment to the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority's current supplemental resolution to allow the TBTA to take out loans from financial institutions rather than issuing bond anticipation notes.
The 2025 supplemental resolution for the TBTA authorizes up to $7 billion of new money issuance, and any
"The CBD Tolling Program went into effect in January 2025," the resolution said. "As is often the case with new funding sources, it is difficult for MTA to structure a new long-term bonding credit to leverage these monies until a sufficient operating and collection history is available."
The MTA is considering borrowing $500 million "in the near term" through these loans, Willens said.
In March, the MTA plans to issue $800 million of payroll mobility tax obligation bonds through its TBTA credit in a competitive deal. The agency has plans to issue $2.9 billion of new-money bonds in the first quarter of 2025, according to its
