Riders Alliance v. Hochul

A New York Supreme Court denied New York State Governor Kathy Hochul and other State respondents’ motions to dismiss lawsuits challenging the Governor’s decision to pause a congestion pricing plan for Manhattan’s Central Business District (CBD). The court found that petitioners who lived in the CBD had standing for their claim under the New York State Constitution’s Environmental Rights Amendment and that the challenges to Governor Hochul’s action were ripe, rejecting the respondents’ contention that there had been no final determination. The court also found that petitioners made “a more than plausible argument” that the New York State Department of Transportation’s execution of a Tolling Agreement—which was a condition precedent to implementing the congestion pricing plan—was ministerial, not discretionary.

Three organizations filed a lawsuit challenging New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision to halt the implementation of a Congestion Pricing Program in New York City that would impose tolls on vehicle traffic south of 60th Street in Manhattan and use at least $15 billion of the toll revenue for public transit capital projects. The petitioners asserted that the Governor’s decision violated obligations imposed on decisionmakers by New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which requires consideration of whether decisions are inconsistent with or would interfere with New York’s attainment of the CLCPA greenhouse gas emissions reduction mandates. The petitioners also asserted that the Governor’s action violated the New York Constitution’s Environmental Rights Amendment because it deprived New Yorkers of their right to cleaner air to which the State committed when it enacted the legislation authorizing the Congestion Pricing Program.