FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 7, 2024
"The Building Congress believes it wise for our state legislators to stand firm these past two days through numerous half-baked schemes aimed at “fixing” the Governor’s indefinite – and ill-advised – postponement of congestion pricing.
As they near the final hours of session in 2024, we continue to maintain that there is NO substitute for the $15 billion for mass transit, environmental benefits, and job creation that congestion pricing will generate.
We are talking about a comprehensive program that has been decades in the making, carefully constructed (and endlessly debated) by elected leaders across the city, state, and federal governments, advocates, and experts. To believe that anything could take its place in mere hours would be legislative malpractice.
Ultimately, our industry believes there is no legislative silver bullet, and we urge the Senate and Assembly to stop looking for one. As such, we are calling on the Governor to turn her indefinite postponement into a very definite one, with the immediate reinstatement of congestion pricing with a firm start date – the sooner to June 30 as planned, the better. Crucial projects like the Second Ave. Subway are already at risk.
Madame Governor, you paused to assess the situation; you paused to take the temperature of New York on this critical policy and assess our economic future; and you’ve heard from legislators saying that they have never heard from more constituents on any issue, ever, than they have the past two days in support of congestion pricing. Our industry implores you to listen to them.
It's time to flip the switch and turn on the sensors and lead New York into its economically and environmentally thriving future.
Absent that, the MTA board must reject the Governor’s directive and follow their legal fiduciary duty to support the MTA’s best fiscal interest and allow congestion pricing implementation to continue as planned."
