The MTA's funding fight has new urgency after Trump election

Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul/Mike Groll

"God forbid, if Donald Trump is elected, [congestion pricing] will never happen," New York City Comptroller Brad Lander told The Bond Buyer in September. "I shouldn't say never, but it will not happen now. And that's $15 billion of investment that we'll have lost for no good reason."

Indeed, President-elect Donald Trump declared in May in a social media post that he would "TERMINATE Congestion Pricing in my FIRST WEEK back in Office!!"

Trump's election has left New York lawmakers scrambling to see if they can implement congestion pricing — and save the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's capital plan — before Inauguration Day.

In June, when New York Gov. Kathy Hochul halted congestion pricing two weeks before it was scheduled to begin, she didn't give a clear reason for the sudden, "temporary" pause. Many observers assumed she was waiting until after the election; congestion pricing is unpopular among some of the exurban drivers who would be paying the toll. 

With the election over and Democrats picking up three congressional seats in New York, Politico reports, Hochul is looking into reviving the tolling plan — with some changes.

The governor has asked the Department of Transportation if she could lower the tolls for passenger vehicles from $15 to $9 without initiating another years-long environmental review. ($9 was the lowest toll that the DOT studied in its original environmental review.)

A change to the toll would still require a 60-day approval process. It would also mean higher tolls on trucks and taxis and getting rid of planned discounts for low-income drivers, since the state law that created congestion pricing mandated that it generates $1 billion a year. 

If congestion pricing isn't underway by the time Trump enters office, he could prevent it much like Hochul did. 

An official start to the program requires the Federal Highway Administration to send a letter of approval, which the MTA and Hochul's Department of Transportation must sign. Hochul "paused" the plan by refusing to sign, and Trump could kill it by rescinding the letter. 

"Had [congestion pricing] gone into effect as it was supposed to, on June 30, it would already be functioning, and no additional federal approvals would be needed, and we would have $15 billion to pay for our mass transit," Lander said in September. Hochul "will also have to face the fiscal reality that there is not a different place to get $15 billion for our mass transit system."

The MTA has maintained it's ready to start congestion pricing as soon as it's allowed. The congestion pricing pause created a $16 billion gap in the agency's 2020-2024 capital plan and set it far behind its targets for the plan's completion.

$28.5 billion of the MTA's current capital plan is uncommitted; the agency created a pared-down version of the plan using the $12 billion of its remaining funding and delayed $16.5 billion of expansion projects, elevator installations and station repairs until it fixes its funding gap.

Meanwhile, the MTA is trying to advance a 2025-2029 capital plan with a $69 billion budget. That plan would require $33 billion of new funding. MTA Chair Janno Lieber has said he trusts the state legislature to deliver the funds for the state-of-good-repair-centric program.