First, I want to thank you for your work this week in clearly spelling out the grave risks of pausing the implementation of congestion pricing. I'm here for those reasons — because I believe in reducing pollution and carbon emissions that threaten our air and planet. Because I believe in reducing traffic that endangers pedestrians and bikers, and slows emergency services and critical deliveries. Because I believe in improving and expanding our great transit system to reclaim its place as the best in the world. Because I don't want to pay higher taxes and higher interest rates just to keep the system functioning.
But I'm here for another reason, too, one that I hope you'll join me in acknowledging as equal to the others. I'm here because what you decide now may well set the precedent for how our state's government treats its citizens for decades to come. This may seem like an odd argument, especially coming from someone who is very definitely not a lawyer. But I object, in the strongest possible terms, to the text of your proposed resolution that - quote - "New York State has subsequently announced a pause to the implementation of the C-B-D-T-P." - end quote.
Again, I'm not a lawyer. But I have taken civics classes. Unless the Governor is now the Queen of New York, she is not the State itself and cannot rule by video decree. A law — passed by our elected legislature, signed by our elected governor, approved by this board and the federal government and recently upheld in federal court — cannot be annulled by a video this Governor posted on YouTube and dared to call the rule of the land.
I understand the difficult position the board finds itself in, given that the Governor appoints its members and can, for now, choose not to take the final steps required for implementation — even though many lawyers believe she does not have the authority. I understand that you must now plan for an uncertain financial future that may not include congestion pricing revenue. I'm standing here today to remind you that you can plan for the future without imbuing the Governor's mere video posts with the full powers of the State.
In fact, your duty, when the law is unclear, is not to mindlessly carry out the orders of the Governor. It is the opposite. Your duty, as spelled out in the 2009 Public Authorities Reform Act, is to serve the MTA's and the public's interest independently of the officials who appoint you. As you have made abundantly clear this week, the Governor's attempt to coerce you into following her ill-advised, potentially illegal, decree is in no way in the interest of the MTA or the public that relies upon it.
If you choose to move forward with this resolution, you will thus be abandoning your legal duty. But you will be doing much worse. You will be affirming that this Governor, and future ones, can continue to rule New York by fiat rather than being beholden to its laws and its citizens. So I urge you, simply, to do your duty. Reject this resolution and with it the very notion that a Governor can act like a despot — and allow our laws, rather than the Governor's digital proclamations, to direct you.