By Hadassa Kalatizadeh

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has said that it may take two years for New York City tolls to begin under the Manhattan congestion pricing program. The MTA’s toll for cars to enter Midtown “could be delayed until 2023,” officials wrote in the agency’s Nov. 24 quarterly disclosure to bondholders.

As reported by the NY Post, the congestion pricing program is being delayed due to the continued lack of a clear answer from the Federal Highway Administration as to what kind of environmental review will be required. The tolls were originally scheduled to begin in January, and passed in 2019 in a bid to raise $15 billion for the MTA’s $51.5 billion modernization plan to upgrade subway and commuter rails. Congestion pricing was lauded as an opportunity to bring in $1 billion annually for mass transit. The toll and new fee are even more crucial now, as the COVID-19 pandemic has left the agency financially devastated.

Back in February, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had suggested that the FHA’s lack of compliance was a doing of President Trump holding the program “hostage.” “The federal government has been slow, obstinate and I think purposefully difficult whenever they can,” Cuomo had said. “It’s political extortion … and, I think, you see this across the board, and I’m not holding my breath for them to approve congestion pricing.”

That reasoning does not explain why the holdup would continue till 2023, especially with the incoming Biden administration. “The MTA is acting much too complacently. Don’t just tell us your worst-case scenario — tell us what you’ll do to get this vital program up and running as quickly as possible,” said Ben Fried, of the Manhattan-based think tank TransitCenter. “This should be a layup for Governor Cuomo to score a quick win with the incoming White House and help shore up the MTA’s fiscal position. With a friendly administration, there’s no reason this needs to take more than two years.”

An MTA representative commented, insisting transit officials are still optimistic. “The MTA is still pushing for the $12 billion we need in additional emergency federal funding to avoid having to enact a series of draconian service and employee cuts, toll and fare hikes, and a continued freeze of our capital plan,” spokesman Ken Lovett said in a statement. “While we’re more hopeful [congestion pricing] will move forward under a Biden administration, we continue to await clarity from the feds on what type of environmental review will be required that will help determine when the program will be enacted.”