Attorneys representing New Jersey in a closely watched lawsuit against congestion pricing said Thursday that they want a judge to block the tolling program from taking effect this summer.
“We need an injunction because they’re ready to pull the switch, they’re chomping at the bit,” lawyer Randy Mastro said in a full Newark courtroom to federal judge Leo Gordon, who will decide the case.
The request came in the second of two days of arguments in the Garden State’s challenge to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plans to toll motorists entering Manhattan south of 60th Street. Last week the MTA’s board voted to approve the final toll amounts, with plans to charge most motorists a daytime $15.
The MTA plans to launch congestion pricing in mid-June. Judge Gordon said Thursday that he expects to issue his decision just before then, in early June. New Jersey’s challege is widely considered to be the most serious of six lawsuits filed in oppoistion to the tolls.
Mastro, who in court repeatedly cast congestion pricing as a money grab, urged Gordon to require the MTA and federal transit officials “to start from square one” with a fresh environmental review. The toll program is expected to generate $1 billion a year toward mass transit upgrades.
Transit officials, Mastro argued, should start over instead of supplementing their environmental review because the existing documents are “fundamentally flawed.” He argued the tolls will boost air pollution in New Jersey because drivers will take circuitous routes around Manhattan to avoid the fees and that the environmental review didn’t include proper consideration and mitigation of this dynamic.
Lawyers for the MTA and Federal Highway Administration countered that congestion pricing will reduce traffic and air pollution for the region overall, and that they will make investments to mitigate effects on New Jersey communities. They aimed to have the case dismissed.
New York and federal transit officials spent three years conducting 4,000-pages worth of analysis on the impact of the tolling program in the form of an environmental assessment. Mastro called for transit officials to embark on what’s considered to be a more intensive and lengthy environmental impact statement.
The judge said little to indicate which way he may be leaning. FTA attorney Greg Cumming said that in the event Judge Gordon does vacate the environmental assessment, he should give transit officials flexibility on how they conduct a new analysis to satisfy the ruling.
“If the court does remand, it should not pre-judge how [officials] conduct a new review,” Cumming said. Transit officials, for instance, could embark on supplemental analysis as opposed to beginning the process anew.
Regardless of the specific ruling, Judge Gordon said that if he decides a new review is warranted, he will spell out a specific timeline to try to prevent lengthy delays.
“I do not want to be here deciding on this case when I have great grandchildren,” said Gordon. People, he said, “deserve an end date.”
Caroline Spivack , 2024-04-05 00:05:45
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