Cab Rides To Get Pricier As Judge Lets Congestion Fees Start

NEW YORK — Certain taxi and Uber trips are set to get more expensive Saturday after a judge moved to let them take effect. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lynn R. Kotler on Thursday lifted a temporary restraining order on the fees, allowing the state to start collecting them while a lawsuit against them proceeds.

"The congestion surcharge is to pass directly to consumers, and to the extent that petitioners contend that their business will be affected by the same, such an effect does not mandate the continuation of a further prohibition upon the State's ability to collect the tax," Kotler wrote.

The court initially blocked the fees, which were supposed to start Jan. 1, after taxi companies and individual medallion owners challenged them in a December lawsuit. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law last year to implement the charges.

The fees must be collected starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, according to state guidance. Passengers will pay an extra $2.50 for taxi trips to and from central and lower Manhattan, while rides hailed on Uber and other apps will be subject to a $2.75 charge. A 75-cent fee will be added to pooled rides.

The fees are part of a broader congestion pricing plan to help fund the MTA. They're supposed to generate more than $1 million a day for the beleaguered transit agency.

Kotler denied the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, finding that the medallion owners' claims against the surcharge were "sufficient" to let the case proceed.

Nonetheless, a spokesman for Cuomo, Patrick Muncie, called Thursday's decision "a positive step" in the state's efforts to get money to the MTA and address traffic congestion in Manhattan's core. The state will continue to defend the law in court, he said.

"More than $1 million a day will now go directly to the MTA, and we are moving forward vigorously with a full congestion pricing plan that will cover a total of $15 billion for the MTA’s capital budget," Muncie said in a statement.

The taxi interests argued the fees unfairly harm medallion owners and that the state should not be allowed to enforce them because the law implementing them violates the state constitution.

Their lawsuit also argued that because the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission had not yet approved regulations to implement them, cab drivers could not charge passengers for the fees and must bear their burden themselves.

The ruling was a victory for taxi drivers because it allowed the suit to proceed, said Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. But she called on Cuomo, a Democrat, to hold off on collecting the fees "that will force drivers to choose between food and medicine."

"Implementing the surcharge while the lawsuit continues could put the the industry in the predicament of figuring out how to refund passengers, even those who paid with cash, should the drivers ultimately win the case," Desai said in a statement Thursday.

(Lead image: A taxi drives through the streets of New York on June 19, 2018. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)