What a perfect grift. I’m surprised it took lawmakers this long to figure it out.
Now we know what drivers will be expected to pay for the privilege of entering Manhattan below 60th Street under the new congestion pricing taxation program.
An MTA panel has recommended that drivers be charged a $15 each time they enter that so-called “Central Business District.”
Fifteen dollars just to go from one patch of street to the next.
Oh, we’ll get a $5 discount if we take one of the Hudson River or East River tunnels into Manhattan.
But that’s still $10 out of my pocket. Just for crossing an artificially determined border into Manhattan.
What a con.
You get no service or product for this fee, mind you, nothing tangible. As bad as electricity, food, water and heating costs can be, at least you’re getting something for your money.
And at least when you fork over money to see a movie or a concert, you’re getting some kind of experience, even if you can’t take that experience home with you.
Not with congestion pricing. It’s truly money for nothing.
And for all the discounts, drivers who take the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and enter Manhattan via the (still-free) Brooklyn Bridge would not get a discount.
Which could force more drivers into the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel in order to get the discount, which will increase congestion in the tunnel and in Lower Manhattan.
Carl Weisbrod, chairman of the MTA panel that came up with the $15 fee, said that his group was trying to “satisfy the many, not the few,” with “the few” being the 150,000 people who drive into the city every day as opposed to the millions who take mass transit.
In other words, screw motorists from Staten Island and elsewhere who drive into the city, many of whom, particularly from Staten Island, have little choice but to do so because of poor mass transit options. Someone should tell Weisbrod that Staten Island isn’t connected to the city subway system.
And I can’t help think that there’s still another shoe or two to drop here.
Mayor Eric Adams last week called for a number of exemptions to the congestion fee, including for city-owned cars, according to the New York Post.
What a disgrace. It’s uber-green, Dem city officials who are constantly demonizing cars and harping on motorists to get out of our vehicles and use mass transit in order to ease emissions and save the planet. This is the whole point of the congestion pricing tax in the first place.
They should do the same and take mass transit instead of looking for exemptions for their city-owned cars. Aren’t the free parking placards enough for them?
And just you wait until civil servants, from cops to firefighters to public school teachers, start clamoring for their exemptions.
But the more exemptions you grant, we’re told, the more that the congestion fee for the rest of us could increase in order to make up the difference. So our congestion pricing tax money could conceivably go to finance others who continue to drive and are exempt from the fee.
Over my dead body.
Money-for-nothing $15 congestion pricing tax the biggest NYC motorist rip-off yet (opinion)
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03.12.2023
What a perfect grift. I’m surprised it took lawmakers this long to figure it out.
Now we know what drivers will be expected to pay for the privilege of entering Manhattan below 60th Street under the new congestion pricing taxation program.
An MTA panel has recommended that drivers be charged a $15 each time they enter that so-called “Central Business District.”
Fifteen dollars just to go from one patch of street to the next.
Oh, we’ll get a $5 discount if we take one of the Hudson River or East River tunnels into Manhattan.
But that’s still $10 out of my pocket. Just for crossing an artificially determined border into Manhattan.
What a con.
You get no service or product for this fee, mind you, nothing tangible. As bad as electricity,........
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