Queens Borough President Melinda Katz is taking firm stance against Move NY, a congestion pricing plan that would raise funds for infrastructure repairs by implementing tolls on bridges over the East River, as well as on traffic crossing south over 60th Street in Manhattan.
In a statement co-signed by 18 Queens state senators, assembly members, and council members, Katz denounced Move NY as unfair to Queens residents. Under Move NY, Queens residents would be disproportionately taxed, with no promise of receiving benefits of the plan, the Queens politicians said.
“The ‘Move NY Fair Plan’ is far from fair and lacks any promise of returns. It is fundamentally unfair to charge residents a fee to travel within one city. It is certainly unfair to the families who live in the transit desert of Queens as it would landlock our Borough,” the pols’ statement said. “The ideas in the proposal for mass transit improvements are great. But without any direct connection between the revenues generated from the proposed tolls to those very improvements, there is simply no guarantee that this proposal will actually yield anything tangible or amount to anything more than just that: an interesting idea.”
The group acknowledged the need for more reliable funding for mass transit, but argued that Move NY would raise funds at the disproportionate expense of Queens drivers. “We reject the notion that there is only one way to generate additional monies for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and our region’s infrastructure,” the group said, urging the city to find alternative funding methods.
18 comments:
Taxtaxtax when will the people say ENOUGH!!!
Bowel Move NY tax Bowel Movements
10 cents a Flush 💩
Thank you Melinda! Now let's find a viable alternative.
Glad to see more politicians standing up against this terrible idea.
Do people really believe that the tolls they lower will stay low? If this passes, in a few years, all the bridges and tunnels will be back up to current prices, and we won't have any free alternatives to turn to.
Aside from that, I don't see how anyone could feel comfortable with the government always tracking their cars.
Bring back the commuter tax instead. At least that can be deducted from our federal taxes, and doesn't make traffic worse.
"If this passes, in a few years, all the bridges and tunnels will be back up to current prices, and we won't have any free alternatives to turn to."
That's the point. Free alternatives create an incentive for people to clog up those bridges.
"At least that can be deducted from our federal taxes, and doesn't make traffic worse."
How would the tolls make traffic worse?
"Traffic" not only refers to the number of cars on the road but to the travel time. So tolls make traffic worse.
Why not let Manhattan become it's own city again as it was prior to 1898?
Manhattanites have an attitude about the boroughs and many of the non-native New Yorkers tend to look down their noses at us.
Screw them!
They get the Second Avenue subway and we get an extra stop on the 7 line but the 7 hardly works anymore.
We get service cuts on buses while they get bicycle stations. We get green cabs whose drivers can hardly speak English and don't know their way around and they demand a 25 MPH law passed because some of the non-natives cross the street from between parked cars and get body parts
removed for being street stupid.
With telecommuting who needs Manhattan. Bye-bye!
There is a solution, one that has many powerful forces arrayed against it.
What is it?
A little background:
The giant multinational contractors that bought up Slattery, Schiavone, Turner, and others all looked at the bloated US project costs, and especially salivated over NYC Metro area's obscene budget and timelines.
The union featherbedding and antique practices, in both MTA capital and operations, is choking both the Capital and Operations budget. They make NYC the world loser in construction cost, and hamper service quality and quantity.
If Metro NYC was contest with the likes of London, Barcelona, Rome, and Tokyo for heavy rail construction costs, analogous to a 10 mile long race, Barcelona would win going away, leaving everyone in the dust. In fact, at the point Barcelona crosses the finish line, Tokyo and Rome would be at the 5 mile mark and battling for second. London at the 3 mile marker at 4th place. Metro NYC would had just passes the 1 mile marker and dead last.
Last I checked both London and Tokyo had high real estate costs, living costs, and underground challenges from existing infrastructure. Both Rome and Tokyo face earthquakes. All three have antiquities. All are unionized or have collective bargaining, and are First World Democracies. Yet they all manage to do far better in Subway, Commuter Rail, and HSR.
This is the BS we live with.
If the costs came down to London levels, $15 billion funding gap would disappear. In fact, if the costs came down to Tokyo levels, the $100 million+ NYC spends on Staten Island Ferry and other ferries could instead fund new subway construction forever.
Take a look: Cuomo, DeBlasio, etc: They're not going to rock this boat. Not when both the Unions and Contractors back the Status Quo. Scott Stringer tried to bring new subway line costs as Comptroller candidate last year, but fizzled. We need real leaders; Katz, Crowley, Goldfeder, Avella which one of you got the guts?
Disband the Greater City of New York?
Ha, ha, that's cute.
I guess Queens' thriving financial sector will provide all the tax revenue to pay for its thriving illegal immigrant community?
Manhattan could live without Queens quite easily. Not so the other way around, my friend.
>>>"Traffic" not only refers to the number of cars on the road but to the travel time. So tolls make traffic worse.
They aren't putting in any toll booths. If you have EZPass, you get charged through that. If you don't they take a picture of your license plate and mail you a bill. How does that slow down traffic?
Some people will stop driving for some trips, or not make some trips all together, it will improve traffic flow, not hinder it.
Council member Mark webrin supports congestion pricing
Why?
Most of his constituents are unaffected. Most of those that are affected benefit. Why would he oppose MoveNY?
Most of his constituents are unaffected. Most of those that are affected benefit. Why would he oppose MoveNY?
YEA RIGHT, Stop drinking the koolaid. Congestion pricing has no benefit for any Queens resident. It is just another tax and money maker for the MTA.If you really believe the BS that they are using to sell this plan you are an idiot.
YEA RIGHT, Stop drinking the koolaid. Congestion pricing has no benefit for any Queens resident. It is just another tax and money maker for the MTA.If you really believe the BS that they are using to sell this plan you are an idiot.
Cheaper tolls on every other bridge. More Queens residents drive to and from the Rockaways, to the Bronx, and to upper Manhattan than use the Queensborough. Cheaper LIRR fares and express bus fares too. Most are unaffected. Most affected benefit.
Cheaper tolls on every other bridge. More Queens residents drive to and from the Rockaways, to the Bronx, and to upper Manhattan than use the Queensborough. Cheaper LIRR fares and express bus fares too. Most are unaffected. Most affected benefit.
Okay, but I disagree. Tolls and train fares will continue to rise with or without this plan.
Everyone should be calling their Council member and complain about this plan.
>Okay, but I disagree. Tolls and train fares will continue to rise with or without this plan.
Of course fares and tolls will rise. But legislatively setting the Whitstone, throgs neck, triborough, and rockaway tolls at a percentage of the CBD toll so the people who subsidize the trains are driving to midtown, where there are transit options for them, instead of to the Bronx and points north or the rockaways, where they don't have good options, is a very good thing. MoveNY doesn't let the MTA change that. The state can, but politicians will feel the wrath of voters if they renege, the MTA board doesn't, that's why people driving to the Bronx subsidize the subways, not people driving to Manhattan.
>Everyone should be calling their Council member and complain about this plan.
MoveNY is being oversold, absolutely. The MTA has is fifteen billion short on a five year plan. That's three billion a year. MoveNY gives them one billion. They bond it out and end up in the same place ten years from now, except now they have a bigger interest bill to pay. Or they get more money, and cut costs. MoveNY is necessary, not sufficient.
They should be calling to say the plan isn't enough. That they need to close the rest of the budget gap without debt, so the MTA can be paid for today, not by our children.
Disband "Greater New York "?
Yeah, watch your taxes quintuple.
Let's have a realistic solution, like stop electing council members who are in league with developers.
Katz is their queen. She got elected with real estate developers' money.
And now she's pissed off? What a show. What a blow, folks.
Swallow that Kool Aid.
It's not possible Katz decides what Katz believes on her own, is it?
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