MTA in dark over Gov. Hochuls talks to revive congestion pricing with lower tolls

The MTA’s top honcho on Tuesday said he’s in the dark about talks between Gov.Kathy Hochul and lawmakers to potentially revive congestion pricing with a toll lower than $15.“I don’t know anything about what’s being talked about, if anything is being talked about,” Janno Lieber, the agency’s chair and CEO, said Tuesday at an unrelated press conference.Lieber’s declaration came after The New York Times reported some state lawmakers had been pushing Hochul to tweak the controversial program she put on pause just weeks before it was slated to begin.Lowering the toll to drive into Manhattan below 60th Street would reap less money for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but still salvage the first-in-the-nation program, the Times reported that lawmakers hoped.Hochul didn’t confirm or deny the reported discussions when asked about them Tuesday.“I said I’ll be continuing to have conversations with the leaders of the legislature and members of key committees.

I’ve already started those conversations,” Hochul told reporters during an event announcing that pools at New York state parks will be free this summer.“As I said, every project that is important, and they all are important, will be funded,” she added, referring to the MTA’s warnings that some planned system upgrades will need to be deferred due to Hochul indefinitely delaying the congestion pricing plan.The governor, who has said that scrapping the $15 toll, at least temporarily, made sense as New Yorkers face a cost-of-living crisis, maintained that argument.“It’s just not the right time,” she said.“We will find the financing and these conversations are very much underway.” But Lieber’s reveal that those conversations have so far bypassed him underscored how the MTA is effectively in the political wilderness when it comes to efforts to save congestion pricing, or at least replace the $15 billion it would have raised for high-profile transit projects.On top of that ...