Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Sunday there are no plans to comply with federal deadlines to end New York City’s deeply unpopular crowd pricing scheme.
The White House in February threatened to block the Metropolitan Transportation Agency from collecting a $9 toll.
The MTA filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that month, with city and state transports later piling up and taking part in legal action against the federal government.
“In spite of the administration’s “crony” orders, efforts to immediately reverse the solution to city crowds enacted by elected representatives of New Yorkers are illegal and invalid,” the amended complaint states.
Mayor Eric Adams has expressed his support for the lawsuit as New York came barreling towards the April 20 deadline last week.
The White House refused to identify what would happen if New York ignored the deadline set by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Agents earlier this month Posted on x it If the state refuses to provide details, but “doesn’t hesitate to use all the tools at will.”
The White House had previously requested that the MTA stop collecting tolls on March 21, but Transport Secretary Sean Duffy announced before the deadline that the US DOT had allowed a 30-day extension by Sunday as negotiations continued.
In a statement to the Post on Sunday, MTA Chief, Policy and External Relations John J. McCarthy reaffirmed the agency’s decision to sue Dot, attacking Duffy and throwing weight.
“If there are doubts, the MTA, state and city cities have reaffirmed in courts that the pricing of congestion has remained and that the debate that Secretary Duffy tried to stop it has zero merit,” the spokesman said.
The US DOT did not respond to a request for comment in a Sunday post in response to a rebellious response from Hochul’s office as the deadline expired.
