New Jersey mayor sues MTA to stop congestion pricing

The MTA is facing a second federal lawsuit from New Jersey seeking to block its congestion pricing plan.

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich on Wednesday unveiled the class action suit, which he filed on his own behalf as well as on the behalf of borough resident Richard Galler and other “commuters to New York City who will be subjected to increased tolls and/or inconvenience and cost of rerouting in order to avoid congestion pricing,” according to the suit.

The suit seeks both a review of the Federal Highway Administration’s approval process for the MTA’s “Central Business District Tolling Program,” and the creation of a fund to “remediate” the damage done to Fort Lee from the plan, including in the form of air and noise pollution from rerouted automobile traffic.

Announcing the litigation at a news conference near the George Washington Bridge, Sokolich said detoured traffic trying to avoid the new tolls will bring “pollutants, filth, and dirt.”

“It impacts everybody in my borough and the region,” Sokolich said.

A Federal Highway Administration spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Speaking in support of the suit, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, (D-Fort Lee) said “the goal of the lawsuit is to stop the congestion tax plan” and to “force the Department of Transportation to conduct a full, proper environmental study.”

In a statement, John McCarthy, chief of policy and external relations for the MTA, said Gottheimer’s real goal is “to send more traffic and more pollution to New York.”

“Manhattan is already full of vehicles, and we don’t need more carbon emissions,” McCarthy said. “So congestion pricing needs to move forward for less traffic, safer streets, cleaner air and huge improvements to mass transit.”

The state of New Jersey filed a federal lawsuit in July seeking to block the implementation of congestion pricing, arguing federal regulators turned a “blind eye” to the negative impacts on residents.

The congestion pricing system would toll vehicles entering or operating below 60th Street in Manhattan, charging vehicles with E-ZPass as much as $23.

The MTA aims to generate about $1 billion in new toll revenue that would go toward infrastructure investments throughout the transit system. The Long Island Rail Road stands to receive about 10% of the new funding.

But MTA chairman Janno Lieber acknowledged last week that, if litigation delays the implementation of congestion pricing, the agency may have to reconsider some infrastructure projects in its current five-year, $52 billion capital program — nearly a third of which would be funded through bonds backed by the new toll revenue.

The MTA last week announced it had hired civil rights attorney Roberta Kaplan to fight lawsuits challenging the plan. Lieber said he considers the debate a civil rights issue because the vast majority of commuters in the region — including those from New Jersey — use public transportation to get to and from Manhattan, and would benefit from congestion pricing.

“Everything everybody seems to want to talk about are the 35,000 New Jerseyites that commute to the central business district by automobile and pay a ton for parking, versus the millions and millions of people who commute by mass transit and will benefit,” Lieber said.

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.