Kathy Hochul to defy federal deadline to end congestion tolls

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is poised to ignore a federal deadline demanding an end to the state’s controversial $9 congestion toll for vehicles entering parts of Manhattan.

According to a report by the New York Post, both the city and state Departments of Transportation have joined a lawsuit initially filed in February by the Hochul-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The suit came after the White House threatened to block the MTA from continuing to collect the tolls, which took effect January 5 for vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street.

“Despite the Administration’s ‘royal’ decree, its effort to summarily and unilaterally overturn the solution to the City’s congestion enacted by New Yorkers’ elected representatives is unlawful and invalid,” stated the amended complaint. 

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) insisted it would enforce the April 20 deadline. This comes despite an agreement reached in court earlier this month between the MTA and the Trump administration to allow the toll cameras to stay on until the fall.

“The deadline is April 20th, and we expect New York to comply and terminate this program,” a spokesperson for the USDOT said. “USDOT will continue to fight for working class Americans whose tax dollars have already funded and paid for these roads.”

Earlier this month, the USDOT said in a post on X that it would “not hesitate to use every tool at our disposal” to shut down the tolls if the state refused to comply.

Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a plaintiff in one of several lawsuits challenging the tolls, accused the Hochul administration of bypassing federal law by moving forward without completing a full environmental impact study.

“It’s not the first time the governor has violated our laws, right?” Malliotakis said in a press conference on Saturday. “Whether it’s the sanctuary [city policies], state policy, whether it’s ignoring federal directives, this is just another example of how it’s rules for me, not for thee. They don’t want to comply with our federal law.”

The White House previously said it ordered the MTA to stop collecting tolls by March 21, but a 30-day extension was granted by the USDOT as negotiations continued.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has yet to publicly comment on his administration’s decision to join the legal battle alongside Hochul. His office issued a statement suggesting that the city remains willing to work with the federal government on transportation funding, while defending the MTA’s ability to seek its own solutions.

“The mayor has been abundantly clear that he is open to working with the federal administration — as demonstrated by his subway walkthrough with the U.S. Transportation Secretary — to ensure all New Yorkers have access to safe, affordable, and structurally sound transportation,” the statement said.

“We also want to be sure our subway and bus system has the funds it needs, and the state should be able to make independent assessments of how to raise those funds. This was an amendment to a previously filed lawsuit by the MTA to add additional context that NYC DOT has gathered on the new program the state has instituted on city streets."