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If you are one of the many drivers currently moaning about the price of gas, Bloomberg doesn't so much care - at least when it comes to reducing or capping the city's gas tax. On his weekly radio address yesterday Bloomberg was asked about the possibility of capping the 4% gas tax which the city currently enjoys. This approach to dealing with the high prices is being floated all over the country (and in Albany which is getting set to cap its 4% gas tax).
But just because other folks are cutting back their taxes doesn't mean we should. "A small reduction in the tax is going to hurt this city, and it's probably not going to reduce the pain very much for everybody," Bloomberg said.
What kind of numbers are we talking here? Well, capping the city's tax would probably cost us around $50 million, or nearly enough to pay the salary of almost 1,000 police officers or teachers.
"The long-term solution in this country, which nobody wants to hear, is to use an awful lot less energy and to get away from fossil fuels," Bloomberg said.
We are so with Bloomie on this one. We'd take teachers and cops over cars any day.
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he's kind of right on this one. all removing the tax will do is put the supply demand out of wack and let the oil companies raise the price to match the reduction. the only thing to do is really to leave things be, if big oil continues to gouge, people will slowly move to other methods or conserve.
Glad Bloomie has more sense than Schumer on this issue.
Still, the only thing is NOT to leave things be. Raising gas taxes would be a small start. There are tons of things that could be done. All it takes is vision, and some cojones.
This dumb question comes up in the UK (where I'm from) all the time. And they get really nasty with it (blockading roads & causing shortages).
Yeah, let's cut back on a few teachers and police so you can fill your big, dumb SUV for a tiny bit less. Maybe the oil companies will help teach our kids with all that extra profit they're making? Probably, they're SUCH nice people, right?
Agree with the above posters. Nixing the gas tax is a dumb idea - if anything we should be weaning people off their oil heroin
glad to hear bloomie sounding sensible. when is he going to implement the traffic congestion pricing?
CarsVsPeople: if the price of gas keeps rising, congestion fees might end up being a moot point. $4/gallon gas is a congestion fee, and a pretty damn effective one.