New Jersey is pursuing legal options to block New York’s congestion pricing plan that would charge motorists entering Manhattan’s central business district, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said in a Wednesday interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power.”
The tolling plan, which will charge drivers in Midtown and downtown Manhattan a fee, received final federal approval last month. Murphy, US Senator Bob Menendez and other Garden State lawmakers have opposed the plan. New Jersey commuters would be subject to the toll — on top of existing fees to access the city — and the rerouting of traffic could clog up roads and create pollution in his state, Murphy said.
Murphy said his administration has been “lawyering up and we’re considering all of our options.” New Jersey has already hired law firm King & Spalding to consider paths forward. While the state is considering legal challenges, Murphy also hinted at using the bi-state transportation agency — the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the region’s air and seaports — as a potential foil to the plan.
“We also have the Port Authority, which is a player here and another avenue that we are constantly assessing,” he said.
“I’m not going to allow the MTA to balance its books on the backs of New Jersey commuters,” Murphy told “Balance of Power” anchor, Annmarie Hordern. Officials estimate the new tolls will raise $1 billion a year for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The plan is for the MTA to borrow against that amount to generate about $15 billion to fund transit infrastructure like extending the Second Avenue subway line to Harlem, modernizing signals and making subway stations accessible.
The governor said he would consider a deal if plans to revamp the Port Authority Bus Terminal and add additional train tunnels under the Hudson River — both of which would satiate New Jersey commuters — were complete.
“When both of those are complete and there’s a fair deal to discuss, that’s something I would be completely open to, but this is not the time or the place,” he said.
--With assistance from Michelle Kaske.
(Updates with how much congestion pricing is expected to raise for the MTA in the fifth paragraph.)
