Posted on 06/29/2007 8:39:49 PM PDT by neverdem
In promoting his sweeping traffic reduction plan, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his aides have stressed one provision: drivers who enter Manhattan below 86th Street would be charged an $8 fee.
But what has not been widely mentioned is a measure that could startle some Manhattanites: those who live within the zone would have to pay $8 to drive out.
The congestion pricing program was devised to cut traffic, chiefly by persuading people from the other boroughs and beyond to leave their cars behind and take public transit into Manhattan. But planners say that those who live inside the congestion pricing zone also contribute to traffic when they drive out, and should pay their share, too.
That means a man from Greenwich Village who drives to visit his grandmother in Queens would pay the fee. So would a C.E.O. who has a reverse commute, driving from the East Side to Stamford, Conn., each morning, and an Upper Eastsider who likes to drive to the Fairway supermarket in Harlem.
It might seem that anyone taking a car out of the congestion zone ought to be rewarded instead of penalized, but officials disagreed.
“We’re not trying to get people to leave the zone in their cars,” said Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, who played a leading role in fashioning the plan. “Overall what we’re trying to do is get people to use their cars less.”
The plan, which requires approval from the Legislature, would use mounted cameras and an E-ZPass system to record cars as they travel in, out, and within the congestion zone. The fees would be in effect weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The fee would be levied only once a day per vehicle; in other words, a person who drives into Manhattan and back on the same...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good-bye business!
More taxes to pay for failed socialist programs.
Am I the only one who thinks “officials-(think politicians) must be some of the dumbest people on earth?
Just think of the tax revenue boondoggles he could come up with if he were president = glad he’s left the party = he needs to be put out to pasture
I used to love driving into the Holland Tunnel on Friday night to cruise Manhattan ... those days are long gone!
Free parking and movement is what has made America great.
AND they want to charge NJerseyites a fee for driving in.
those who live within the zone would have to pay $8 to drive out."
There's an arbitrage opportunity in this tax scheme that clever NYers, cabbies or others could figure out.
Then again, friends of Bloomberg probably already have it cornered.
He has to get money from someplace to fund this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1852519/posts
Poor New Yorkers to Get Cash for Good Behavior
People who live in NYC are some of the dumbest people on earth.
They deserve everything they get, and then some.
HMM. I thought there was a law that a “free” road must be available for use near all toll roads. It can’t be the only route. That’s what this is, a toll. If you live by one and use it, you have to pay, regardless of which way you are going.
Words from a movie involving a toll road by a person named William J. LePetomaine come to mind but I can’t post them here :>}
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace.
We seek not your counsel nor your arms.
Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen.
- Samuel Adams
You exceed your rights when you urge that laws be made in the shape of your conscience to block the pleasures permitted by mine.
When you people prevail, you commit a crime against freedom, and that is the greatest immorality I know.
-Vance Bourjaily, Country Matters
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
- H. L. Mencken
[E]lections amount to no more than choosing between the scum that floats to the top of the barrel and the dregs that settle to the bottom.
- L. Neil Smith
Giving power and money to Congress is like giving liquor and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O’Rourke
Compromise is: getting rid of your principles a little bit at a time.
- Patrick Lear
Reminds one of a poll or head tax to go to one state or another! http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199091/cmhansrd/1991-03-13/Debate-2.html
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Opposition Day
[9th Allotted Day]
Poll Tax (Abolition)
4.15 pm
Mr. Bryan Gould (Dagenham) : I beg to move,
That this House believes that the poll tax is beyond reform and must be abolished immediately ; condemns the Government’s dithering and delay in carrying out yet another review and its reluctance to face the fact that the poll tax must go ; warns against any attempt to retain the essential elements of the poll tax in another guise, either alone or in combination with another tax : and urges the Government to replace the poll tax with a property-based tax, linked to the ability to pay, along the lines of Labour’s Fair Rates proposals.
Mr. Speaker : I must announce to the House that I have selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister. A large number of hon. Members wish to participate in this most important debate. I have no authority to limit speeches in a half-day debate, but if hon. Members will confine their speechs to not more than 10 minutes each, a large number of them will be called. Perhaps the Front-Bench speakers will take only a little longer.
Mr. Phillip Oppenheim (Amber Valley) : On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker : What possible point of order can there be in that?
Mr. Oppenheim : The point of order relates directly to the motion. I shall be brief, but I seek your guidance, Mr. Speaker. You will be aware that, on 17 July 1811, your illustrious predecessor, Speaker Abbot, ruling on the debate on the Gold Coin and Banknote Bill, said this :
“If hon. Members open their journals they will find it established 200 years ago, and then spoken of as ancient practice, that a personal interest in a question disqualified a Member from voting.” “Erskine May” has clearly interpreted that ruling as follows : “No Member who has a direct pecuniary interest in a question is allowed to vote upon it ; but, in order to operate the
disqualification, this interest must be immediate and personal.” Mr. Speaker, you will be aware that many Labour Members who are top rate taxpayers are none the less laying extra burdens on people who are far less well off by not paying the poll tax. Surely nothing could be more clear than that they should be disqualified from voting on the motion.
Mr. Speaker : I have seldom heard anything more spurious. The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that we are all subject to paying the community charge and if I ruled as he seems to be suggesting, nobody would be able to vote.
Mr. Robert G. Hughes (Harrow, West) : Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. William Ross (Londonderry, East) : Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker : I have already said that this is not a point of order.
Column 960
Mr. Ross : On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Not everyone in the House is liable to pay the poll tax. Are we to infer from the point of order that the only people who can vote on the motion are hon. Members representing Northern Ireland constituencies?
Mr. Hughes : On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker : Order. I hope that this is not as bogus as the first point of order.
Mr. Hughes : This is a different but related point of order, Mr. Speaker. Will you reconsider your view? On Monday night, when Lambeth council discussed the community charge that it was to set, two councillors who had not paid their community charge were debarred from voting because they had a pecuniary interest in the matter. Therefore—
Mr. Speaker : Order. This is not Lambeth council.
Mr. Hughes : Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker : Order. If the hon. Gentleman wishes to pursue this point, he should reflect on what I said to the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Mr. Oppenheim). If I ruled as he wished, no hon. Member would be able to vote, except those representing Northern Ireland constituencies.
Mr. Hughes : This is relevant because we make the Standing Orders by which the House works and we make the standing orders by which Lambeth council works— [Interruption.] That is true. With great respect, that is the local government law. We make those standing orders and we make these Standing Orders. On page 384 of the 21st edition of “Erskine May”— this is a separate reference from that made by my hon. Friend—
Mr. Speaker : Order. I have heard enough. The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that he is not making a good point. If he seeks to be called in the debate, let him make the points then.
Mr. Hughes rose —
Mr. Speaker : Order. I must ask the hon. Gentleman to resume his seat.
Mr. Richard Tracey (Surbiton) : On a point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker : I hope that it is legitimate.
Mr. Tracey : It is a serious point. On Monday night, Lambeth council —
Mr. Speaker : Order. It is not legitimate.
Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman (Lancaster) rose —
Mr. Speaker : I hope it is not about Lambeth council.
Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman : I am not referring to Lambeth council, but to the fact that you, Mr. Speaker, are unable to hear the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Surbiton (Mr. Tracey) because of the noise from the Opposition Benches— [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker : Order. I heard clearly enough.
Mr. Geoffrey Dickens (Littleborough and Saddleworth) : I spy strangers from Lambeth council.
Mr. Speaker : Order. I think that is a joke.
I guess they will just have to keep buying cars, driving them in, and leaving them there.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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