No Tax Increase Means Less Money?

There's a degree of anxiety about Albany's ability to get us out of this fiscal mess. And rightly so.

To date, no idea trickling out of the state capitol has spared the lesser earners among us.

East River tolls and an MTA fare hike are both sound revenue sources, but they only prop up a system that's wildly mismanaged and underfunded anyway. The Seminal said it right...

Of course, a 28% fare increase —more than a dollar extra for every round trip commute—would effectively (if not officially) be a tax increase. . . except this one would primarily affect the [lower] end of the economic ladder.

It seems like Gov. David Patterson's adamant stance against an income tax increase may only hurt the needier among us. His reasoning seems rather odd...

Mr. Paterson [believes] an income tax increase would do more harm than good by causing people to move out of the state.

Yet maybe a commuter tax hike would motivate out-of-State workers to seek employment out of New York - namely the City?

The math of all of this works out rather simply...

For millionaires, who don’t take the subway all that much—no new taxes; for working class New Yorkers, who do use the subway daily to get to and from work—how does paying an extra $260 per year sound? (That’s per person—if there are kids that use the subways and busses to get to school, multiply accordingly.)

Where's the fairness in that?

Bringing Back The Commuter Tax

Bloomberg Budget Director Mark Page today told a hearing of the Council Finance Committee that the administration intends to lobby the State Legislature to reinstate the Commuter tax stolen from the City in 1999. Estimates have the annual value of the tax as high as $700 million. Speaker Silver who was the Democratic architect of the '99 deal to give the money away has indicated willingness to support its reinstatement. The new Senate Democratic Majority is more likely to embrace such a reinstatement than the Bruno or Skelos (who sponsored the '99 repeal in the Senate) Republican team. The Queens folks responsible for giving away some 5 billion dollars in commuter tax revenue since 1999 in what may be the dumbest and ugliest deal in the history of the dysfunctional NYS Legislature and are still thrilling us with their Assembly work today are: Queens Assembly members Vivian Cook, Marge Markey, Cathy Nolan, Audrey Pheffer and Bill Scarborough. The Mayor will need some magic in dealing with Albany to reinstate the Commuter Tax. The City could sure use this one now.