A Taxing Commute Opposed

The Hartford Courant ^ | November 16, 2002 | Hartford Courant staff

[cgbg]

Use link to read this article.

[cgbg]

This is a great tax proposed by Blomberg. It will take all those spineless moderate Republicans in Fairfield County and radicalize them.

I expect to see a lot of new CT Freepers soon!

[CatoRenasci]

Nah, most of us Fairfield County Freepers have long since stopped commuting to New Tax City.

[AmericaUnited]

Blomberg was a registered RAT, up till a year ago, when he switched so as to run on the uncrowded GOP side.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

The only thing not taxed nowadays is taking a healthy dump.

[Chad Fairbanks]

And even THAT requires low-volume toilets, sewer taxes, etc...

[sam_paine]

"It's a classic example of taxation without representation,"

I hope they remember this principal with their multi-state internet tax, too.

[Rome2000]

I fled from that socialist hellhole 10 years ago because the city government is run by corrupt politicians, union bosses, and the mafia.

A regular citizen doesn't have a chance in hell when both Rat and RINO politicians would rather tax them to death before giving up a single union job.

Notice that Blomberg wants to institute a new income tax on 800,000 commuters, cut services, and up property taxes 25% on home and business owners, but has not proposed the layoff of a single city worker.

If you aren't rich or don't work for the city, there is no sane reason to live there.

Bloomberg is a demented freak, like a lot of billionaires are.

Ted Turner and Tom Golisano come to mind.

[Glenn]

New York City is going to collapse on itself. The more it taxes, the less revenue will be attracted to it. So long. I won't miss you that much.

[Dog Gone]

There is a simple fact of economic theory that should be easy to understand.

You get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you tax

That applies to everything from farm subsidies to grants to the homeless.

You want more hobos in your town? Subsidize them like San Francisco does.

You want less commuters in your town? Tax them like Bloomberg intends.

[scripter]

From the article:

the plan, which would cost a person making $100,000 close to $2,700 in taxes.

Hey, that's only an additional $225 a month, or $52 a week, or approximately $10 a day in taxes. </sarcasm>

[cgbg]

You want less commuters in your town? Tax them like Bloomberg intends

So true. Interestingly many of these public policy and tax moves have second, third, and fourth order implications that are not obvious to most observers. The question NYC should be asking (but probably won't be):

(1) If people don't want to commute here, will they be able to convince their company to relocate out of the city?

(2) If people decide to move into the city to avoid the tax won't that just further inflate the current outrageous cost of city housing with a negative effect on all city residents?

(3) Will strapped commuters spend less money in the city (in restaurants during lunch, for example) because of this tax?

etc., etc., etc.

There are probably many other effects, even critical ones, that noone has thought of that will come back and burn the city.

[RobbyS]

A millionaire socialist, like Fred Engels.

[agrace]

I heard Bloomberg's tax outlined on local NYC radio the other day. I guess his "you can't turn here anymore" plan hasn't been successful enough in cutting down city traffic so he's resorted to eliminating commuters altogether. Glad my husband isn't working in midtown anymore.

[KarlInOhio]

How do New York City income taxes work?

In Ohio, if both the living and working locations have income taxes, the working location takes priority. For example, I live in a city with 1.75% income tax and work in a city with a 1.5% tax. That means I pay 1.5% to where I work and the remaining .25% to where I live.

Does the city of residence have first cut in New York?

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Yep can't forget all the fines, zoning and nazi laws one has to go through to put in a septic in the country. You are right the gov. even gets money from you to dig a huge hole of crap in your yard.