MTA SURPRISE: The MTA board will likely have to vote on whether to implement congestion pricing. But those tasked with formalizing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to indefinitely pause the tolling plan got no advance notice. “I was not consulted, and other board members were caught off guard,” Midori Valdivia, a member of the MTA board appointed by the mayor, told Playbook. Another board member, who agreed to speak on background due to the sensitivity of the situation, put it more bluntly. “We have no idea what the fuck’s going on,” the person said. “We haven’t since this all started.” The problem for Hochul is that the Legislature has signaled it will not implement a last minute payroll tax on the last day of the legislative session, leaving the state in a $1 billion hole if it moves through with Hochul’s call to suspend congestion pricing. "I believe the governor did misjudge this," State Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger said. Regarding the willingness of Senate Democrats to support a tax, she added, "I do not believe we have an appetite for that." There is still speculation about how and if the governor can unilaterally implement her last-minute decision to shut down the congestion pricing program. Rachael Fauss, a senior policy advisor with Reinvent Albany, said that if the Legislature doesn’t act, the move will go to the MTA board, putting intense scrutiny on the 23-person board. “She hires and fires the MTA board,” Fauss said of the governor. “But there's a whole section of state law that requires MTA board members to fill out an oath and to essentially say that they are going to be fiduciarily responsible for the MTA. That is in complete conflict with the governor's plan because they would have to vote to defend themselves. I think that that opens the MTA to lawsuits.” The board is made up of 14 votes, but one vacancy on the board (a Cuomo appointee) leaves it at 13 votes. Five gubernatorial appointees, four mayoral picks and one each from Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester counties comprise the body. Representatives from Rockland, Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties each get one-fourth of a vote, totaling up to one vote from the upstate counties. MTA Chair Janno Lieber, a champion of congestion pricing, can break a tie. This all means that pro-congestion pricing advocates would need to convince seven members of the board to kill the governor’s new anti-congestion pricing plan to have a majority should a vote come before the body. “If this doesn’t come to a board vote, then I am confused as to our role as a board,” Valdivia said. She also pointed out the board had already voted on the issue twice. Since the governor’s announcement, two top city officials and mayoral appointees to the board, Meera Joshi and Daniel Garodnick, have come out against the governor’s move. Fellow board members David Jones, Valdivia and Samuel Chu also support congestion pricing. That’s five board members who want the tolling plan, meaning they would only need two more to undo Hochul’s reversal. In a March MTA board meeting, almost all board members spoke in strong support of congestion pricing. Mayor Eric Adams gently endorsed the governor’s anti-congestion pricing move. "I think that if she's looking at analyzing what other ways we can do it and how we do it correctly, I'm all for it,” Adams said. “We have to get it right. This is a major shift in our city and it must be done correctly.” Fauss anticipated this “will not be an easy fight for the governor at the board level if the Legislature washes their hands of this and says it's your problem, governor.” As the Legislature scrambles to consider other options to make up the $1 billion, and MTA board members continue to piece together what happened, the governor who started this all remains behind closed doors. She hasn’t spoken once with reporters since making the consequential decision, and nothing’s on her public schedule today either. — Jason Beeferman
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