When retired public sector employees in Cortland County received a letter last July announcing the county legislature’s intent to privatize their health care plan, it struck some as an inevitability. Medicare Advantage seemed to be everywhere. Sales representatives pushing the privately run alternative to traditional Medicare had already convinced nearby Chemung and Tioga counties, among others, to move their retirees over to one of their plans, seemingly with little pushback from the affected seniors.

Then something unusual happened. Instead of accepting the change and hoping for the best, Cortland retirees sued the county and won. The county legislature reversed course, and the retirees kept the plan they had been promised throughout their careers.

On June 26, three weeks after Governor Kathy Hochul announced she was halting implementation of congestion pricing, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted in favor of a resolution to put the program on pause.

The plan, which would have generated $15 billion in revenue for the MTA to implement upgrades to the city’s aging transit system, was set to take effect on June 30. Now, without an alternative funding source, the authority is planning to suspend dozens of major projects, including new stations, trains, and signals.