The United Federation of Teachers and Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella sued on Thursday to block congestion pricing in Manhattan, saying teachers and other public servants would be “forced to shoulder the burden of the MTA’s latest fundraising gambit.”
The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court adds to the stack of legal challenges to the landmark tolling program, which was approved last month and is expected to go into effect as soon as the spring. But the new suit is the first to focus on the anticipated costs for government employees, who will not be exempt from a new $15 base fare should they drive to work within the toll zone south of 60th Street.
“Teachers, firefighters, police officers, EMS workers, sanitation workers and other public sector workers who are essential to the fabric of New York City would be forced to shoulder the burden of the MTA’s latest fundraising gambit; some are already considering changing jobs because of the proposed tolls,” the lawsuit reads.
The case forges an unlikely alliance between the city’s powerful teachers union and Fossella, a Republican opponent of congestion pricing who was among the first elected officials to threaten to sue over the program.
“Make no mistake: These workers will be intentionally punished under the proposed scheme at a time when so many are fleeing the city due to the high cost of living,” he said at a press conference with the teachers union Thursday morning.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber has compared any major changes to the tolling scheme — such as exempting large groups of people from congestion pricing — to a Jenga game.
“If you change one aspect … the whole thing starts to unravel or fall apart,” Lieber said last month. “It’s definitely a really complex calculus if you change anything.”
A 2013 analysis by the city’s Independent Budget Office found 81% of teachers in Staten Island live in that borough, meaning few of them stand to be affected by congestion pricing on their daily commutes.
The tolls are required by state law to generate $1 billion in revenue to fund mass transit improvements.
The new lawsuit also accuses the MTA, the federal government and the city’s Department of Transportation of rushing through the approval process for the plan without ample consideration for environmental effects on surrounding areas, including the Bronx and Staten Island.
“What we would say in my world is ‘the kid only read the Cliff[s] Notes, and they cut corners constantly and everywhere,’” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said.
Similar arguments have been raised in separate litigation brought by the state of New Jersey, the mayor of Fort Lee and a Battery Park City resident. Federal and state authorities have found no environmental harm from the plan.
A spokesperson for the MTA fired back at assertions the environmental review process was not robust.
“The environmental review process for congestion pricing involved four years of consultation with government agencies, public outreach meetings, and engagement with tens of thousands of public comments, with hundreds of pages of painstaking detail released that considered impacts on traffic, air quality, and environmental justice across the metropolitan area,” John McCarthy, the MTA’s chief of policy and external relations, said in a statement.
“And if we really want to combat ever-worsening clogged streets we must adequately fund a public transit system that will bring safer and less congested streets, cleaner air, and better transit for the vast majority of students and teachers who take mass transit to school,” the statement added.
Spokespeople for the federal Department of Transportation and the city’s DOT did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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