New Jersey legal challenge raises start questions NBC New York [Video]

The legal battle over New York’s congestion pricing is not over yet, thanks to neighboring New Jersey.

Federal Judge Leo Gordon has set a Friday 3 p.m. hearing in Newark — just 33 hours before congestion pricing is presently scheduled to begin — to consider a Temporary Restraining Order filed by the state of New Jersey.

Garden State officials and attorneys who’ve argued that Bergen County and other areas west of the Hudson will suffer environmentally from new traffic patterns declined comment. But a spokesman for Governor Kathy Hochul indicated the nation’s first congestion toll will begin as scheduled.

“Congestion pricing is still going to take effect on Sunday January 5th,” said Avi Small, the New York governor’s press secretary.

Hochul had paused congestion pricing back in June, but unpaused it in November at a lower fee.

Years in the making, the congestion pricing program tolls drivers entering Manhattan south …