Posted on 12/05/2008 5:56:46 AM PST by ml/nj
Mass transit is on the brink, and there's no single, simple fix.
Ravitch wants a tax on all worker payrolls downstate - 33 cents for every $100, yielding $1.5 billion a year. Burdening businesses with new costs at this tenuous time is not to be taken lightly. But it is necessary.
Second, he calls for new tolls on East River and Harlem River bridges - which would net another $600 million a year. That won't be painless either. But it, too, is necessary.
Third, the plan calls for a new approach to fare hikes - inflation-adjusted increases every two years. God knows bus, subway and rail commuters aren't eager to dig deeper into their pockets. But the alternative is ruin.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
To me, what this is really about is the total bankruptcy of government in this country, not in a financial sense but rather in a moral sense. So while Bloomberg is out pratling about Plaxico Burress and his gun, his lackeys are engineering a huge money grab to finance G-d knows what.
The great financial wizard Bloomberg is telling us that the subways are on the brink of collapse. (The cynic in me wonders if this is because the Great Financial Genius spent the subway receipts on a handful of artificial waterfalls around Manhattan.) Of course the fiscal problems are blamed upon the larger national problems that helped elect Barack Obama. But this observer, at least, wonders what unforeseeable problems have befallen NYC's Transportation Authority. Their energy/fuel costs have gone DOWN. They haven't renegotiated any union contracts recently that I am aware of. I doubt that people have stopped riding subways and busses. In fact, if people are really having to make tough financial choices, then it would seem to me that some would be switching from taxis to subways.
The notion that the government should ever make do with less seems to be one idea that never makes it to the table. So instead, these schmucks want to put tolls on bridges that have been free for a hundred years and to raise them on the others. (And BTW, it's not like they haven't been raising them frequently and often. Bridges that cost a quarter when I started driving are now five dollars each way. The one I know of that cost a dime is now $2.75.) And then there's the new payroll tax. It would be bad enough if they proposed this for people who work in NYC, but that apparently is not sufficient to fill their megalomaniacal coffers. They want it on "downstate" workers. I say F--- them. I say F--- Bloomberg who just abrogated term limits so he could continue to reign as potentate of NYC. And I say Free Plaxico, who may be a jerk, but he's not looking to use his gun to rob each and every person who comes near NYC of ther fruits of their labor.
ML/NJ
This will probably continue until people stop working harder to offset tax increases and simply stop working...
On local Fox news Ravitch said that bambi will fix things...in time.
If the NYC toll authorities are anything like their counterparts in Philadelphia, then a lot of the money being collected in tolls isn't going anywhere near the infrastructure for which they are supposedly paying.
ICBW, but my money is on the investments of pension funds in failing/failed stocks, bonds or whathaveyou.
Government is not our friend. It's really just a branch of organized crime.
Oh, it’s not just a in a moral sense, but in a financial sense too!
“Government is not our friend. It’s really just a branch of organized crime.”
>>>>>>...................
seems like you are on to something..drug dealers get pardons
law inforcement gets jail..
the GOP is in this up to their ears with the Demorats.
Any job cuts in congress??
Well, we know that at least $4 million of it was just pissed away to rename the Triborough Bridge in honor of Bobby Kennedy.
I don’t eat at subway.
Series, what’s next?
your assessment of the subway thing is good, but you lost me at the plaxico gun rant.
they gonna charge the pedestrians/cyclists now as well ?
where are the environmentals as the stop and go traffic will result in more pollution.
what about the increased weight load on these bridges from the stalled traffic due to the toll ? anyone think about the increased stress,wear and tear on the structures ?
why can’t anyone ever get a court order forcing the mta to open all their sets of books ? even numbered years there’s a deficit,odd ones a surplus.
public should be aware of every profit from their real estate sales,how may executives,secretaries,etc are on board doing nothing,and that some mta employees are still without a contract for more than 5 years.
we’re still wondering how much was embezzled from the health benefit trust as when one contract resulted in aetna,everything was eithr covered 100% or a $5 co-payment. Prior to this we paid 100% and got denial after denial.
this aetna health plan(not including dental but “well baby”) was also without any increase in payroll deduction.
atty general,etc has been contacted year after year with no appropriate response to our enquiries.(mta bookkeeping and their health benefit trust)-
why doesn’t anyone in authority care ?
.
Who'da thunkit?
I don't think I "ranted," but I did try to make two points related to the Burress gun incident. One is that the Great Flim Flam Mayor is using it as a means to distract from the supposed financial problems he has been responsible for and which he only now discloses. The second is that a gun in the hands of a jerk is not nearly as dangerous as all those guns in the hands of the government which are the ultimate authority it uses to extract money and property of the citizenry for whims of the political class.
I'm not sure what was lost on you, and whether your comment relates to one or both or neither of these points.
ML/NJ
Good point. I think Plaxico was anticipating defense and not to rob anyone.
From the article: "And for those who use public transportation every day - well, an 8% increase is far, far preferable to the doomsday 23% hike that would be required if Ravitch hadn't found a way to spread responsibility around."
This is the same game they play with every transit fare hike. Frighten people with the threat of a large hike and then "save" them with a "responsible" smaller hike. In this drama, the bad guys will be some appointed officials and the good guys some elected officials.
that's a little preachy for me, personally.
you're justifying someone transporting a handgun across state lines into a licensed premise while under the influence of alcohol.
i don't think RKBAers will necessarily rally around plaxico.
since the beginning of time — dated from the use of the first Greek-themed blue paper cup — subway fare hikes have always run parallel to the price of a slice of pizza.
The Daily News supported The Messiah. I used them to pack and secure comic books.
If I had dogs, guess what I’d use the Daily News for.
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