With New York’s congestion pricing program indefinitely paused, lawmakers face an urgent question: how to fill the $15 billion hole that Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision opened up in the budget of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates buses, subways, and commuter trains serving millions of New Yorkers daily.

So far, they don’t have many ideas.

The program’s revenue, generated by charging drivers $15 to enter downtown Manhattan during peak hours, would have provided the MTA $1 billion a year. That would have funded upgrades to Great Depression-era signals in subway tunnels and new elevators and escalators at Long Island Rail Road stations, among other projects.

At a Sunday event in the Bronx, Governor Kathy Hochul refused to provide details on her plans to fund mass transit after her decision earlier this month to pause congestion pricing punched a $15 billion hole in the budget of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

A New York Focus reporter repeatedly asked her how she plans to provide cash to the authority, which was scheduled to begin a program on Sunday that would charge drivers $15 to enter downtown Manhattan during peak hours. Without replacement funding, the nation’s largest public transit system will be forced to cancel projects ranging from new subway stations to elevator installations, and could fall into general disrepair.

Hochul pledged that won’t happen, but provided no specifics.