Comments on: New York City’s congestion pricing began this past Sunday https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/ A blog about political change, among other things Wed, 08 Jan 2025 18:06:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781294 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 18:06:41 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781294 What none of you have offered:
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A. An argument as to why the congestion problem should be ignored or
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B. An argument as to why some alternative plan might work better.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781293 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 18:05:16 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781293 Yes, it is, actually. Income and sales taxes distort decisions,
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A. They don’t appreciably if you do not incorporate sectoral preferences into the definition of taxable income.
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B. They don’t if they are ad valorem and do not incorporate sectoral preferences.

]]> By: Jimmy https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781291 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 17:47:45 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781291 That’s not better yet.

Yes, it is, actually. Income and sales taxes distort decisions, so a pile of revenue from congestion pricing is better used to lower other distorting taxes than just redistributed lump sum.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781272 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 16:02:41 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781272 You don’t have to keep giving me more reasons to never visit.
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Greater New York splays over 19 counties. About 9% of the population of the whole lives in Manhattan, with another block of local residents commuting into Manhattan. Manhattan has an issue with traffic congestion. If you drive through Manhattan as we speak, you will face traffic congestion. The idea is to ration street space so the traffic actually flows, making use of prices as a rationing mechanism. This makes New York as a whole less pleasing just how?

]]> By: David Davies https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781268 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 15:19:54 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781268 Yet another reason NEVER to visit NYC.

Come on guys, I was already convinced that I’d rather beat my toenails off with a hammer than visit your hellhole. You don’t have to keep giving me more reasons to never visit.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781259 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:12:49 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781259 Better yet, cut other taxes. Some chance. They explicitly said the revenue would go to public transit, as though money isn’t fungible. Remember how lottery revenues were “earmarked” for education?
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That’s not better yet.
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If you can contrive a way to deliver equivalent services at lower cost or to improve services at no added cost, do that. If you can discern activities which ought to be discontinued, do that. The appropriate level of taxation is invariably that which finances your planned expenditure.
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Lotteries are a scam. You want to gamble, hit the Indian casino or the race track.

]]> By: Jimmy https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781255 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 13:46:12 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781255 “Here’s a suggestion: put the revenue in a holding fund along with revenue from fines, civil forfeitures, judgments, indemnities, vice levies, Pigou levies, unclaimed property &c. At the end of the fiscal year, remit the contents of the fund to the general public on a per capita basis”

Better yet, cut other taxes. Some chance. They explicitly said the revenue would go to public transit, as though money isn’t fungible. Remember how lottery revenues were “earmarked” for education?

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781247 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 11:20:49 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781247 Hey, MAYBE one could start with the rancid, deep-seated, debilitating corruption and lying…?
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Addressing such problems is a good thing, but it’s not going to help you alleviate congestion in Manhattan.
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]]> By: Barry Meislin https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781245 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 10:25:29 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781245 Good question…

Hey, MAYBE one could start with the rancid, deep-seated, debilitating corruption and lying…?

Maybe.
Maybe not…

“The MTA is wasting billions on NYC’s congesting pricing plan”—
https://nypost.com/2025/01/07/opinion/the-mta-is-wasting-billions-on-nycs-congesting-pricing-plan/
Opening grafs:

With congestion pricing now underway, the tone-deaf misfits at the MTA are taking a victory lap on just about every news network they can, touting how visionary their regressive tax is while claiming it will lead to better and safer mass transit.

Forgive me for being pessimistic, but if you buy what the MTA is selling, I have a bridge or two to sell you!

These are the same folks who had their most recent Five-Year Capital Plan shot down by two of the biggest spenders in New York’s history — legislative leaders Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart-Cousins — due to their concerns about how on earth the MTA was planning on paying for over half of its ­proposed $65 billion plan.

This should come as no surprise, though. MTA Chairman and CEO John “Janno” Lieber and the bigwigs at the agency have been spending like drunken sailors for years — so much so that the MTA has more debt than almost 80% of states in the country.

That’s totally unsustainable and reflective of their obnoxious attitude toward New Yorkers who pay their ­salaries….

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2025/01/07/new-york-citys-congestion-pricing-began-on-sunday/#comment-2781212 Wed, 08 Jan 2025 05:43:38 +0000 https://thenewneo.com/?p=139153#comment-2781212 So…how much does a seething population cost?
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What do you want to do about the traffic jams?

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