New York City residents pay the highest taxes in the nation.
In addition to state and city personal income taxes and property taxes, the City imposes a score of other taxes. They include NYC property transfer tax, NYC mortgage recording tax, commercial rent tax, general corporation tax, unincorporated income tax, NYC bank tax, utility tax, commercial motor vehicle tax, off-track betting surcharge, and fire insurance premium tax.
Of course, all the revenues generated from those taxes are never enough to satisfy the ferocious appetite of New York’s ruling class.
Take for example the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) that oversees public transportation in the New York City metropolitan region. The MTA is a maze of poorly managed transit agencies that stick taxpayers and commuters with the tab for fiscal and operational incompetence.
The MTA is renowned for its misuse of capital project funds, public employee union pandering and fiscal slight-of-hand accounting.
To address its fiscal mismanagement and exploding debt burden, the MTA came up with a new tax to impose on New Yorkers — congestion pricing. Vehicles driving south of 60th Street in Manhattan at peak hours would pay between $15 and $36.
The “green” crowd applauded this tax. They actually believe that traffic would drop significantly and air quality would improve.
What they have failed to realize is that the MTA sought the congestion pricing tax to generate revenue, not to protect the environment.
They need $1 billion a year in revenue from that tax to fund principal and interest payments on $15 billion of long-term borrowing. To achieve that end, the last thing the MTA wants is less traffic in Manhattan.
To implement congestion pricing, the MTA had one of its subsidiaries, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, spend $750 million on needed hardware and software. Those origination costs were to be paid back from the proceeds of MTA bonded debt.
But as the June 30 congestion pricing commencement date grew closer, the business, trucking, union and political communities attempted to derail the project in order to placate their outraged constituencies.
Initially, Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to stand down.
At a world economic conference in Ireland in late May, Hochul told participants that “making cities more livable starts with getting more cars off the roads, reducing pollution, and making significant investments in our public transport City transit systems.”
To meet that end, The New York Times reported, Hochul “promised to transform mobility in New York City with a first in the nation congestion pricing system. The concept, she said, had stalled for 60 years because leaders feared a backlash from drivers set in their ways. But she said, “if we’re serious about making cities more livable we must get over that.”
A profile in courage? I think not.
Why?
Exactly 16 days later, June 5, Hochul, fearing a backlash, announced she was indefinitely pausing implementation of the tax saying, “I cannot add another burden to working middle-class New Yorkers or create another obstacle to our continued economic recovery.”
Then, after catching flak from the usual far-left suspects, the New York Post reported, Hochul is “pushing a New York City tax hike to replace the $15 congestion tolls she indefinitely postponed.”
One day Hochul says New Yorkers are burdened with enough taxes and the next day she calls for more taxes.
You can’t make this stuff up.
It was even too much for the Democratic-controlled state Legislature whose members love increasing taxes. Her request fell on deaf ears and the legislators went home to begin their re-election campaigns.
Since the June 6 announcement, there has been plenty of weeping and moaning. Green activists accused Hochul of betraying them and acting in her own political self-interest.
Angry MTA bureaucrats announced suspension of major capital projects including the extension of the Second Avenue subway and cancelled routine repairs and upgrades at train stations to spite local pols.
A New York Times editorial proclaimed, “New York should lead the way on congestion pricing, not delay it.” It added the governor’s misguided move “is a setback for the city and the nation.”
Even the Times Arts section went after Hochul for “putting up a roadblock to boldness.”
The Regional Plan Association’s executive V.P., Kate Slevin, denounced Hochul’s decision as “a total betrayal of New Yorkers and our climate.”
What the leftist do-gooders fail to understand is that Hochul and Democrats up for reelection surrendered to a grassroots congestion pricing tax revolt.
New Yorkers from every walk of life made it clear they have had it with their pockets being picked by tax and spend politicians and bureaucrats.
Yes, congestion pricing was the straw that broke the taxpayer’s back.
If the vacillating Gov. Hochul reverses her decision on congestion pricing after the November elections, she too will face a tax revolt at the polling booth when she seeks re-election in 2026.
And that would be a good thing.
George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.
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