Trump targets MTA funding

Funding for the ever-struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority may once again be in jeopardy – even as state leaders have no answers on how to plug a hole that already exists in the next proposed capital plan. Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed on Friday that she recently spoke with President Donald Trump about congestion pricing, which his administration is looking to kill. And a new directive from the federal Department of Transportation may imperil future federal dollars based on the state’s immigration policy. 

Following reports that the Trump administration is looking in earnest to pull federal approval for congestion pricing, New York leaders reiterated their support for the controversial tolling program. Although Hochul would not discuss any details of her conversations with the president in recent days, she said that she is planning to talk with him again next week. “The topic of congestion pricing is something I've spoken about,” Hochul told reporters at an unrelated press conference on Friday. “I'm aware of the change in patterns that are resulting in certainly for many people's commutes, less time on the road.” Early data released by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority points to successes in reducing congestion.

Speaking at a Citizens Budget Commission breakfast the same morning, MTA Chair Janno Lieber expressed a degree of confidence that the federal government would not be able to pull its authorization at this point. “I’m optimistic about the legalities,” Lieber said at the Friday morning event. He said that walking back prior approval for congestion pricing, which was approved through the Value Pricing Pilot Program agreement, could have negative impacts on other projects approved through federal agreements, such as toll roads in Trump-friendly states like Florida and Texas.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Friday as well that he expected to speak with Hochul later in the day to talk about congestion pricing as it faces threats from the Trump administration. “I'll continue to support Gov. Kathy Hochul and her leadership here in the state of New York,” he said at a press availability in Brooklyn, cautioning that he didn’t want to “get ahead” of his planned conversation with the governor.

Congestion pricing is meant to provide $15 billion for the MTA’s previous capital plan through bonding, with the funds already delayed slightly by the six month pause of the program’s implementation last year. It has faced numerous legal challenges, which the state is so far largely fending off, but Republican members of Congress from New York have pledged to find a way to end the tolling scheme with the support of Trump. If the program does get killed, it would deal a major blow to the MTA’s finances that the state would struggle to fill. 

But the potential loss of congestion pricing revenue isn’t the only threat to the MTA’s finances. Future transportation funding, which the MTA is relying on for part of its next capital plan, could also be in jeopardy under a new federal Department of Transportation memo first reported by Crain’s. The memo states that all recipients of federal transportation money must cooperate with immigration officials, a policy that could eventually lead the federal government to deny funds to sanctuary states like New York. Hochul stressed that state law allows cooperation with immigration officials when they have a judicial warrant and are targeting criminals. “The president and his administration have telegraphed and have demonstrated they want to go after serious criminals,” Hochul told reporters (though reporting has already shown that immigrants with low-level or no criminal histories, as well as U.S. citizens, have been swept up in deportation efforts). “That is something I believe that all New Yorkers would support.”

But the governor also acknowledged that she does have concerns about the future of federal funding. “I’m going to be having many challenges that come our way,” Hochul said. “I'll stand up to make sure that we get every dime of federal dollars that we're entitled to as a donor state that gives more to Washington than we receive.”

Jeffries doubled down on his defense of immigrants when asked about the prospect of the Trump administration tying MTA money to immigration enforcement. “We are going to strongly defend DREAMers, farm workers, families here in New York and throughout the country,” he told City & State. “We will not allow the Trump administration to hold people hostage in order to enact any extreme parts of their agenda, including as it relates to overreach connected to mass deportation.”