Sunday, October 14, 2007

High fees choke New Yorkers

From the cradle to the altar to the grave, New Yorkers are getting their pockets picked by thousands of sky-high fees, punishing fines and secret surcharges.

Over the past four years, City Hall has made it more costly to park, swim, marry, work out, play a round of golf, view a Picasso, visit a zoo, play roller hockey or own a washing machine.


City, state hike fees for everything but breathing

Not to be outdone, Albany has hiked the price of driving a car, registering a boat, filing a lawsuit, catching a fish, trapping a muskrat, pitching a tent and recording a birth.

Admissions, user permits, nuisance charges and summonses for violations - dubbed the "fees that ate New York" by budget watchdogs - are raking in billions of dollars and shattering revenue records for the city and state, a Daily News review found.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I'll give up my citizenship.....
leave the country and re-enter sub-rosa!

Then, at least, I can claim my rewards
as an illegal alien
by i.e. driving without a license (no fee paid),
co-habitating (no fee for a marriage license.....
free pre-natal care etc. if I knock somebody up),
avail myself of a free medical care program
for me and my new family
(save plenty of fees there)....
yadda, yadda, yadda.

As for all these pesky fee increases......
certainly no need to worry about them
if 'm living here under the radar !

I work like a Mexican peon anyway.

Yeah....I may start out with more money
than they do....but in the end....
the government takes it all
and I'll wind up with similar living conditions.

Isn't it great to be a poverty stricken
overtaxed American citizen.....
living in the big apple while the worm
that's in it is eating better than I am ?

Anonymous said...

Gotta pay for all those infra structure costs for ONE MILLION more people - pretty stiff price the developers/clubhouse puts on our backs, don't you think?

Campaign reform now!

Anonymous said...

If you are a law-abiding citizen, then you get hit in every direction with fees and taxes. If you are illegal, the politicians bend over backwards to cow-tow to you. Hmmm - Maybe we should all move to mexico and take our money with us. It will go a long way in that country. Oh I forgot -- they enforce their laws and won't let foreigners live there. They only want us there as tourists, so we can spend our money there and then leave. Someday there will be no middle class left in New York to pay all these fees. What will the government do then?