Sunday, November 9, 2025
The Town of Hempstead has added its name to the growing list of legal challenges seeking to derail New York City’s congestion pricing program in court.
Earlier this month, Governor Hochul relaunched the tolling initiative under a lower charge, and within days, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board gave a near-unanimous approval, aiming toward a January roll out.
Town Supervisor Don Clavin argues the MTA fast-tracked the revised plan without holding the legally required 45-day comment period, at a press conference earlier today. The lawsuit, filed yesterday in Nassau County Supreme Court against the transit giant and New Yok State, claims "the governor circumvented procedural requirements that enable residents to speak and be heard," according to the supervisor.
"This was done in an attempt to jam this ill-conceived scam down in a time period before Jan 1.," he said, arguing the governer faced political pressure to move quickly in order to stave off legal opposition from Congress and the White House. "We've heard from the President-elect, from Congressmembers on both sides of the aisle, coming out in opposition to this."
The MTA did not respond to a request for comment as of press time. Gordon Tepper, spokesperson for Gov. Hochul, said the state "cannot comment on pending litigation," but argues detractors of the pricing plan are missing the bigger picture.
"The critics of our more affordable plan have still failed to offer any of their own meaningful solutions for reducing gridlock, improving emergency vehicle response times, and strengthening the transit system that is so vital to New York’s economic future,” he said.
The crux of the Town's argument according to Attorney Josh Liebman is that the revised tolling program is an entirely new law that should be subjected to a renewed comment public period.
"When a govermental body makes a rule, the public has a specific right to comment on it and to give any objections they have," said Liebman. "What happened here was a complete rush-job. It's a new law and it was done without any kind of public participation whatsoever."
Clavin also leveled accusations that the governor wielded undo influence over the MTA to push the program forward, staging a sham vote to make the rollout "a forgone conclusion."
"The MTA is supposed to be an independent body, seperate from the governor. The governor has clearly demonstrated that this was going to happen, that the votes were lined up," said Clavin.
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