The MTA board will vote Monday on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s revised congestion pricing plan, with MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber saying the program is “ready to go.”
“The MTA board is going to vote today. We're going to pursue the bureaucratic process with the feds, which we have to go through now because there's a tweak to the original tolling structure, and then we're going to get it going on the 5th of January,” Lieber said in an interview on “Mornings On 1.”
The meeting begins at 11 a.m. A public comment period will follow if the board approves the new tolling structure. Infrastructure for the tolling system is already in place, with the program set to launch one minute after midnight on Jan. 5, 2025.
Hochul’s decision last week to restart the congestion pricing plan included a reduction from the original proposed toll of $15 for non-commercial vehicles with E-ZPass to $9—the lowest fee recommended by the Traffic Mobility Board.
Despite concerns that the lower fee might impact revenue, Lieber remains confident in the plan’s ability to fund infrastructure projects.
“The plan has always been to use that revenue stream to bond out up to $15 billion so that we can invest in new subway cars, commuter rail cars, new signals for better service, a lot of ADA station elevators, all that stuff,” Lieber said. “It may take a couple years to get the last couple billion dollars of the 15 with the lower toll, but thanks to Gov. Hochul endorsing the new MTA capital plan, we're going to have a lot of projects going on.”
Lieber also addressed political opposition, noting that most transit users would benefit from the plan despite criticism from some local lawmakers.
“Politics is politics, and people are trying to make their careers on fighting an initiative which is good for everybody,” Lieber said. “The business community supports this because there's a ton of productivity impact from having all that time wasted in traffic ... the truth is 90% of the people who are traveling to this area come by transit, and they're going to benefit hugely.”
Lieber acknowledged potential federal opposition from the incoming Trump administration.
“Obviously, there are a lot of MAGA politicians around Trump, including, unfortunately, maybe even some folks from New York who are pushing against this,” he said. “I believe that if Donald Trump looked at this—he has office buildings that are filled with people who ride transit 90% of the time. So I think he probably will get it, but one of the reasons we want to move this along is to make sure that the politics of the change in Washington does not become a hindrance to this.”