New York State, Not the City, Will Decide Congestion Pricing. Here’s Why.

ALBANY, N.Y. — So why is it that the state of New York can tell the city of New York what to do with its streets?

The question is a natural one in light of a proposal unveiled Friday to charge drivers who enter midtown and lower Manhattan, a congestion pricing plan that would raise money for mass transit.

The answer lies in Article IX of the New York Constitution, which outlines the state’s responsibilities and powers over its local governments, including their very creation. Leverage over local affairs was codified in a 1929 case, Adler v. Deegan, which found so long as there was “substantial” state interest, the Legislature could act on matters of “property, affairs or government,” an opinion — written by the jurist Benjamin Cardozo — that has been widely construed.

And while the issue of home rule — the ability of local governments to manage their own affairs — still generates lawsuits and calls for constitutional reform, the state’s authority has been upheld by the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. And its influence has been flexed repeatedly over New York City, with the Legislature overruling the city on issues like fees for plastic bags, and granting miserly extensions of mayoral control of the city’s schools.

“It is totally strange,” said Roderick Hills, a professor at the New York University School of Law. “But it is totally legal.”

The basis of the state’s power is hardly the only question surrounding the pay-to-drive-into-the-heart-of-Manhattan plan. Richard Brodsky, the former state assemblyman who fought a similar effort by Mayor Michael Bloomberg a decade ago, said the ideas contained in the Fix NYC plan raised a bevy of issues, including “the real danger of the legitimizing of fees for access to public services.”

“What the governor is talking about has these enormous social consequences,” Brodsky said.

Indeed, the politics of such a change is also an open issue. Cuomo said he would review the report carefully and “discuss the alternatives with the Legislature over the next several months,” he said in a statement.

“There is no doubt that we must finally address the undeniable, growing problem of traffic congestion,” the governor said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has struggled to sway lawmakers in Albany on other legislative desires, expressed measured support for the plan, calling it an improvement on past proposals. But neither the Assembly nor the Senate seemed to be sold, though leaders of both chambers said the issue of mass transit funding needed to be addressed.