It’s just a matter of time before those toll gantries just above 60th Street are activated.

“The system is ready as of this week,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said at a Crain’s New York Power Breakfast Wednesday. “The tolling infrastructure is fully installed. And it’s all powered and connected to a 5G network.”

Mid-June is the target for the start of congestion pricing. The MTA finished submitting the final analysis, modeling, and paperwork to the feds. Lieber said this shows the adopted tolling scheme is consistent with the initial finding of no significant impact.

What You Need To Know

  • MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said their modeling and analysis submitted to the feds show the adopted tolling scheme for congestion pricing is within the parameters of initial Finding of No Significant Impact, meaning the same environmental impact

  • Lieber also revealed the formula they will use to provide New Jersey with environmental mitigation money, which is part of the Garden State's lawsuit against the tolling plan

  • This comes as an internal memo shows New York City Transit blew past its overtime budget in the first quarter and is now capping overtime except in emergencies and certain circumstances

“The actual scenario that we voted on turns out is going to have much less impact on truck traffic and so, it’s well within the environmental review that was approved even with the worst-case scenario by the feds,” Lieber said.

The paperwork also provides for environmental mitigation money for New Jersey. But still no dollar amount, and that’s one of the reasons New Jersey filed one of the five lawsuits aiming to stop congestion pricing.

“The way that all of this is determined is allocations by the number of people who are in areas that are impacted by additional truck traffic,” Lieber said. “And New Jersey will get its share exactly on the arithmetic.”

Lawsuits are not the only issue for the MTA — an internal memo obtained by NY1 shows New York City Transit restricting overtime after exceeding its overtime budget by $72 million. Now, only authorizing it in emergencies and other circumstances. Lieber said, however, it’s not a sign of financial trouble.

“Part of the deal when we solved the MTA’s budget problem was that we were going to cut costs by $500 million, and we’ve done it,” he said. “The MTA is now actually 3% lower in budget terms than it was pre-COVID. And we’re running a ton more service. We’re going to keep pushing on the budget. We gotta be efficient, and we are becoming more efficient.”

Lieber said the cap in overtime will not affect service and riders will see no changes. No word on how long the overtime limits will be in place.