Staten Island has NJ’s back in fight over Manhattan’s new tolls

💲 Staten Island will file its own lawsuit over congestion pricing

💲 New Jersey is suing two federal transportation agencies

💲 The plan is scheduled to take effect in spring 2024

Staten Island will join New Jersey in fighting congestion pricing in Manhattan with a lawsuit of their own over the lack of a full environmental impact study.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced a lawsuit by the state against the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration because an environmental impact study was not done, which he said "short-circuited" the normal process.

Calling it a "driving tax" on roads already paid for, Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella announced his borough's lawsuit Sunday. He said the federal government admitted that air quality will get worse with congestion pricing in place despite New York City's claim the air will improve.

"You'd have to be a first-class idiot to support any plan that intentionally hurts your neighbors and your constituents both from an environmental and financial perspective. And if anybody believes the cost will remain at $23, or whatever it is, we have a bridge back there for sale if you want it," the Republican said, pointing at the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

Fosella: Manhattan is increasingly 'anti-car'

Fosella said the borough, which does not have subway service like the other boroughs of the city, has no say in decisions about the MTA's major projects. The outer borough has become a car-dependent community in a city that Fosella said has become increasingly anti-car over the past 20 years with bike lanes and the closure of lanes available to vehicles.

"There's never an effort to step back and try to do incremental changes to try to adjust the problem. But to sit here and say to the people of Staten Island that you're going to pay more and your air quality is going to be worse doesn't make any sense," Fosella said.

Fosella said he spoke to attorney Randy Mastro, one of the lawyers hired by Murphy to come up with a way to stop congestion pricing, about joining New Jersey's lawsuit but was turned down. As a result, Staten Island will be filing its own separate lawsuit but has not decided who the lawsuit will target.

Murphy during an interview on "Face the Nation" reiterated that he supports President Joe Biden despite their difference of opinion over congestion pricing. He also blamed former Gov. Chris Christie's cancellation of new Hudson River rail tunnels in 2010 and his delay in building a new Port Authority bus terminal for contributing to the current issue.

"Our commuters would have alternatives. Those alternatives finally are coming to pass, but it will take a while longer. At the moment, those don't exist," Murphy said.

Murphy has said he supports the concept of congestion pricing but not when New Jersey commuters are paying the most and seeing the least benefit.

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