Hochul’s congestion charge pause will cost companies in the region billions

It’s the break that causes stress.

Businesses in the tri-state region will lose about $12 billion in MTA contracts, in addition to the previously reported 100,000 jobs, due to Gov. Hochul’s cancellation of congestion pricing — and a new analysis shows which counties will suffer the most.

Reinvent Albany’s latest report focuses on the “little guys” missing out on the big money: The $15 billion in capital investments that would be funded through congestion pricing includes $12 billion for work normally done by private companies, from Buffalo to Hartford and from Cape May to Plattsburgh.

These companies have done well, creating thousands of good-paying jobs over the past decade of MTA capital spending. They likely would have been eligible for the 2020-2024 capital plan, which was funded in part by congestion pricing but is now being scaled back.

And many of those companies are in districts where representatives have said nothing about it, or who supportedthe Governor’s termination of the congestion charge.

Take Ozone Park Lumber, which is in the district of state Sen. James Sanders, a Democrat who has not criticized Hochul’s “pause.” Company President Frank Russo said he understood drivers’ concerns about tolls in the central business district but also said the MTA should continue to do the work of maintaining the subways and commuter rail lines.

“How are they going to keep their system running if they take all that money out of the plan?” he said. “They need their suppliers. You need equipment. You can’t just say, ‘We’re not going to buy supplies and equipment.’ You can’t do that.”

Russo’s firm has secured about $100 million in MTA contracts since 2014, according to Reinvent Albany. He said he was less concerned about his profit margin and more concerned about the MTA “doing the right thing.”

Many of the largest recipients of MTA contracts in recent decades are in districts that have openly opposed congestion pricing.

For example, the MTA purchased $486 million in goods and services from businesses in Sen. Andrew Lanza’s Staten Island district over the past 10 years. And it spent more than $61 million with businesses in Sen. James Skoufis’ northern suburban district.

And it cost a whopping $1.95 billion in the Long Island district of State Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, who made her position on congestion pricing very clear with this post on X:

Her Assembly colleague Gary Pretlow’s Yonkers district has received $1.65 billion in MTA contracts over the past decade. He also opposes congestion pricing, citing his “communities’ concerns”:

Rachael Fauss, senior policy advisor at Reinvent Albany, was surprised that so many lawmakers are objecting to a plan to fund MTA capital investments that ultimately benefit so many voters and local businesses.

“Congestion pricing is an economic booster that elected officials should view as a way to let their districts benefit from contracts for local businesses,” she said. “Instead of focusing on the handful of drivers who drive to the most congested part of the city, they should be thinking about the tens of thousands of jobs that are at stake because of their opposition.”