Hempstead files federal lawsuit to stop MTA's congestion pricing program

The Town of Hempstead on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the MTA’s congestion pricing program, becoming the first Long Island municipality to mount a legal challenge against the tolling plan.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court’s Eastern District, lists the Town of Hempstead and Town Supervisor Donald Clavin as plaintiffs, and names officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Federal Highway Administration as defendants. The suit seeks a “permanent injunction” stopping the congestion pricing plan from going forward.

The first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan, which could take effect next month, would charge most vehicles $15 for driving below 60th Street in Manhattan during peak hours. The plan, approved by federal lawmakers last summer and by the MTA Board in March, includes a few exemptions: for vehicles transporting people with disabilities, emergency vehicles, buses, and some government vehicles.

In a statement Wednesday, Clavin said it is his “job to protect our residents' quality of life and I am proud to become the first municipality on Long Island to stand up in the face of Governor Hochul’s newest tax.”

“The MTA’s poorly conceived plan to implement congestion pricing is just another cash-grab scheme that will once again come at the expense of hard-working Nassau residents who are just trying to get to work,” Clavin said. “I believe that not only is this regressive tax unconstitutional, but the entire program is beyond tone deaf, as more and more residents leave our region as they continue to get priced out by Albany’s reckless tax and spend attitude.”

MTA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.

The suit alleges that the tolling plan is “prohibited by federal law and has not been properly authorized” and requires “direct congressional approval.” The suit further argues that “there is no rational relationship between the charge made against the driver and the service provided by the government.”

“The toll serves only to tax drivers passing into the Central Business District, constitutes an illegal tax, and violates multiple provisions of the New York State Constitution,”  the suit alleges.

The congestion pricing plan “treats classes of persons differently for the same activity with no rational basis, in violation of the equal protection of the laws as provided for in the New York State and Federal Constitutions,” the suit alleges.

By treating different classes of vehicle operators differently, the congestion pricing plan also violates drivers’ “substantive due process rights,” the suit argues.

The lawsuit follows several others filed in recent months, including by elected officials in New Jersey, Staten Island, a New York City teachers’ union, and a group of residents from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Those suits aim to push the MTA and federal authorities to conduct a more comprehensive environmental study before they can move ahead with the Central Business District Tolling Program.

Supporters say congestion pricing would reduce traffic in Manhattan’s gridlocked streets, while also curbing traffic accidents, improving air quality, and generating funding for transit improvements. Opponents — including many elected officials on Long Island and nearly three-quarters of Long Island voters, according to a poll released in November — have called the plan a cash grab by the MTA that will negatively affect people who need to drive into Manhattan and businesses that depend on them.

MTA officials are aiming to enact the new tolls on June 30, but have said the plan could be delayed by pending litigation. MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said Tuesday that the agency is “hoping and expecting” to resolve the suits before the target date, but that was before Hempstead filed its legal challenge.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.