As NYC congestion pricing clears another hurdle, Murphy hires lawyers

The Federal Highway Administration has opted not to require a deeper study of the potential environmental effects of congestion pricing, paving the way for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to finalize its controversial toll for entering midtown Manhattan.

New Jersey's congressional delegation, led by U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, and Gov. Phil Murphy have sent numerous letters asking the FHWA to require the MTA to conduct a full environmental impact study, which is the most thorough type of environmental study of the three used by the federal government. Instead, FHWA officials said they were satisfied with the more than 4,000-page study the MTA submitted last year, known as an environmental assessment.

The agency determined that the environmental assessment "addresses the public comments, considered the environmental impacts, and ensured that adverse effects are mitigated below significant levels," FHWA officials wrote in an email, obtained by NorthJersey.com, to the congressional delegation informing its members that the agency signed off on the MTA's environmental report last week.

Murphy and the state's federal lawmakers are not satisfied with that.

"While we are not necessarily opposed to a carefully crafted congestion pricing proposal, we are deeply disappointed by the FHWA’s limited review and skeptical of the motives of a financially ailing agency that has failed to meaningfully engage with our Administration on this issue," Bailey Lawrence, a Murphy spokesman, said in a statement.

Murphy exploring legal options

He said the governor's office has hired Randy Mastro and Craig Carpenito of King & Spalding to "explore all of our legal options, and we anticipate announcing a course of action soon."

This sentiment was backed by a joint statement released by Gottheimer, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr.

"There is no excuse for FHWA and the Department of Transportation’s failure to require New York to meaningfully engage with stakeholders across New Jersey and to not adequately consult the New Jersey congressional delegation and other elected officials," they wrote.

"No solution should be considered legitimate for as long as New Jersey is excluded from the decision-making process," they argued.

'They don't ask our permission to raise tolls on the turnpike'

Murphy appears to be following through on his threat to assess all legal options after the FHWA gave the MTA the green light to move ahead with congestion pricing in May. Gottheimer, Menendez and some state legislators have also penned retaliatory bills as a result of the proposed toll.

Janno Lieber, who heads the MTA, said the agency is taking New Jersey into consideration while working to finalize the congestion pricing plan, which would charge drivers who enter Manhattan below 60th Street. The toll aims to reduce congestion and pollution and to raise money for the city's public transportation system.

"They don't ask our permission to increase tolls on the Garden State Parkway or the Jersey Turnpike — they just increase tolls on the areas they control," Lieber told Marcia Kramer during a June 11 interview on CBS, on the Sunday after New York and New Jersey experienced unprecedented levels of bad air quality from wildfires in Canada.

"We are very much entitled to deal with our central business district's existential congestion problem," Lieber continued. "We're being responsible about it, and we're taking fairness to New Jersey into consideration. That's definitely on our minds.

"Whatever we do is obviously going to take into consideration people who are paying tolls," he told Kramer.

Last year, as part of its environmental assessment, the MTA studied seven tolling scenarios that included different exemptions, including to spare for-hire vehicles or buses, as well as toll costs that ranged from $9 to $23 during peak hours, and various credits that could be offered to those who pay tolls at different crossings, including the George Washington Bridge or the Lincoln and Holland tunnels.

How the toll system will work — including the toll amounts, who will be eligible for credits and who will be exempt from the toll — will be decided by the Traffic Mobility Review Board, a six-person panel of New York appointees. Once that is decided and approved by the MTA, the plan will have to receive final approval from the FHWA.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: As NY congestion pricing clears a hurdle, Murphy hires lawyers