It's the pause that distresses.
Companies 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 cancelation of congestion pricing — and a new analysis shows what districts will suffer the most.
The latest Reinvent Albany report focuses on the "little guys" who will miss out on the big bucks: the $15 billion in capital investments that were set to be funded by congestion pricing include $12 billion for work typically done by private-sector companies from Buffalo to Hartford and from Cape May to Plattsburgh.
Those companies have done well, and provided thousands of well-paying jobs, in the prior decade of MTA capital expenditures, and would likely have tapped into the 2020-24 capital plan that was partly funded by congestion pricing, but is now being slashed.
And many of those companies are in districts whose representatives have been silent about, or have supported, the governor's congestion pricing halt.
Take Ozone Park Lumber, which is in the district of state Sen. James Sanders, a Democrat who has not criticized the Hochul "pause." Company President Frank Russo said he understood drivers' concerns about the central business district toll, but also felt the MTA needs to continue doing the work to maintain the subways and commuter trains.
"How are they going to run their system if they cut all that money from 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 company has taken in roughly $100 million in MTA contracts since 2014, according to Reinvent Albany. He said he was less worried about his bottom line and more concerned that the MTA "do the right thing."
Only Kathy would post about an ice cream plant after incinerating 100,000 jobs with her congestion pricing FLOP https://t.co/5jMjAYmMz8 pic.twitter.com/JKbvgpVDei
— Travis R. Eby (@travis_robert) July 23, 2024
Many of the biggest recipients of MTA contracts over the past decades are in districts represented by avowed congestion pricing opponents.
For instance, the MTA bought $486 million in goods and services from companies inside Sen. Andrew Lanza's Staten Island district over the last 10 years. And it spent more than $61 million with companies in Sen. James Skoufis's district in the northern suburbs.
And it spent a whopping $1.95 billion in the Long Island district of state Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, who made it very clear what her position is on congestion pricing with this post on X:
Let's call it what it is, congestion pricing is simply another tax. This delay is not enough - we must repeal this disastrous policy. pic.twitter.com/vIhro4tv1h
— Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick (@CanzoneriFitz9) June 6, 2024
Her Assembly colleague Gary Pretlow's Yonkers district got $1.65 billion in MTA contracts over the last decade. He also opposes congestion pricing, citing his "communities' concerns":
As an Assemblyman who opposed the congestion pricing plan, I fully support Governor Hochul's decision to pause its implementation. This move ensures we have ample time to address our communities' concerns and develop a comprehensive plan that benefits all New Yorkers.
— J Gary Pretlow (@JGPretlow) June 5, 2024
Reinvent Albany Senior Policy Adviser Rachael Fauss was surprised that so many lawmakers object to a plan to fund MTA capital improvements that end up benefitting so many of their constituents and local businesses.
"Congestion pricing is an economic booster that elected officials should be seeing as a way to bring home the bacon to their districts in the form of contracts for local companies," she said. "Instead of focusing on the small handful of motorists that drive to the most congested part of the city, they should be thinking about the tens of thousands of jobs that are on the chopping block because of their opposition."
