Published: Jan. 27, 2024, 4:59 p.m.

By Paul Liotta | pliotta@siadvance.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Borough President Vito Fossella announced Friday an updated complaint in his federal court case against New York’s congestion pricing plan — likening it to one of Staten Island’s greatest environmental disasters.

Fossella brought the lawsuit earlier this month with the United Federation of Teachers, led by Staten Islander Michael Mulgrew and a host of the city’s public school teachers.

The updated complaint filed Friday added a host of new complainants, including a bi-partisan group of the state’s elected officials, and an additional cause of action.

“This plan is nothing more than another toll and tax on the people of Staten Island,” Fossella said. “This tolling plan will essentially shift air pollution from Manhattan to Staten Island, and to parts of Staten Island, especially the North Shore, which already suffer from some of the worst air pollution in the City of New York. It is unconscionable that the city would knowingly and deliberately increase the air pollution of our borough for the next 50 years, especially after making Staten Island suffer from 50 years of the Fresh Kills Landfill.”

The MTA’s new program would see motorists charged as much as $15 for entering Manhattan below 60th Street starting in May if the agency gets its way.

However, several lawsuits, including Fossella’s, might delay the program that became law in 2019 but has since drawn pushback from New Yorkers and elected officials.

Staten Island elected officials Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn), State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-South Shore), State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-North Shore), Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-South Shore), Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-East Shore/South Brooklyn), Councilman Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore), Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island), and Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore) joined the lawsuit.

Cliff Hagen, a Staten Island public school teacher and environmentalist who heads the Protectors of Pine Oak Woods organization, also joined the lawsuit, citing negative impacts to air quality thanks to traffic diverted from Manhattan.

Off-borough elected officials who joined the lawsuit include State Sen. James Skoufis (D-Hudson Valley), Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Queens), and Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther (D-Sullivan).

Additionally, the latest filing in Fossella’s lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York argued that the congestion pricing plan violates New Yorkers right to “clean air and water, and a healthful environment,” as enshrined in the state constitution.

“Today, we filed a lawsuit in Federal Court (the Eastern District of New York) to protect the people of Staten Island from the implementation of a congestion pricing plan that will inflict environmental and economic harm and damage to the people and the neighborhoods of Staten Island,” the borough president said.