Car Owners Could Fill MTA Budget Gap Under New Proposal

That's right, lump another tax on the backs of the working middle class.
Oh and fuck you Atomische.

If you are a member of the "working middle class" in New York City, you do not own a Lincoln Navigator. You are most likely taking the subway, which is why it makes more sense to tax vehicles in a time like this.

I think the registration fee by weight is a good idea; heavier vehicles take a heavier toll on the bridges and roadways and should therefore be required to shoulder more of the burden for maintenance.

No! No, no, no, f-ing NO!

When does it stop?!?!? The MTA is already getting our money through taxes, tolls, and our electric bills (there is a special fee hidden in there), oh and they collect a fare every time you get on a bus or train too! We are already too far!

Thank you #4. The working class poor aren't the ones driving into the City. EVERY study that's been done shows that the average car driver is significantly richer than the average MTA rider.

I think it's a good idea.

Sounds like a hella good idea to me.

I know exactly one person who drives to work out of necessity- living in Staton Island and working at the Navy Yard. All the others freely admit that they do it just because they can.

#8 "EVERY study that's been done shows that the average car driver is significantly richer than the average MTA rider"

Yes, that true. And guess what genius, they'll be even richer when they throw in the towel and take their tax dollars and move out of the city and state to somewhere they won't be getting ripped-off quite as much.

[4] agreed...

good idea, yes!

Not to mention that most people in the outer boroughs who DON'T go into Manhattan for work practically need a car to get around without taking three buses and a train. Brooklyn-Queens transportation is especially terrible.

I think it makes sense to raise the fee, but not this much. It's crazy.

sounds like a good idea to me,
the working class people I know live in places like Middle village, queens and take public transportation. the car they have? a Ford taurus.
they carpool when needed because the M train suks.
besides, if you're working and have that type of vehicle, you already have commercial plates.

Every vehicle weighs more than 2300lbs, even the holier than thou Prius weighs 2932lbs empty, and has a GVWR of 3795lbs (which rating do you think they will use?).
Also this isn't just for people that drive into the city, it is for every single car owning person in 12 counties! We are all be getting screwed.

#23- I'm sure folks here will just tell you to ride a bike.

Or something.

#25- You mean by also making the subways even more overcrowded than they already are?

And as someone else already pointed out, a Prius already weighs close to 3000lbs. And it isn't a gas-guzzling behemoth.

"Prius weighs 2932lbs empty, and has a GVWR of 3795lbs (which rating do you think they will use?)"

Most likely, given the examples the Comptroller used, the curb weight ("empty").

"For instance, he said, someone driving a Lincoln Navigator, a luxury sport utility vehicle that weighs about 6,000 pounds, would pay a registration fee of nearly $450 per year in the city."

The Navigator's curb weight is a little over 6000 pounds. Its GVWR is 7800 pounds.

This idea is typical New York City government stupidity. Firstly, stop defining NYC as only Manhattan; more people live in the four other boroughs than on this island. Secondly, for all you supporters of this plan, if you ever left your enclaves and explored the "land of the others" you would see that mass transit does not fit the transportation requirements of all New Yorkers; some areas of the same City you live in need (NOT A LUXURY) cars to meet daily needs. Finally, maybe its time people look at the MTA and the way it balances its budgets. Even when the City was in a fiscally stable situation the MTA was still crying poverty. How is that? Ridership is at an all time high, the State and Federal government subsidize left and right (people in Syracuse and Buffalo must love hearing that), and yet the MTA ALWAYS fails to come up with a balanced budget. But, as always, the New York City way of fixing a problem is throw money at it rather than fixing the actual cause. And to those who quote studies, how about citing the study so we can all have first hand knowledge.

"plug the MTA's budget gap by raising automobile registration fees in the 12 COUNTIES served by the MTA’s trains and buses"

This isn't just raising the fees for car owners in NYC but the whole metro area...

WHY SHOULD CAR OWNERS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT EVEN USE THE MTA HAVE TO PAY EXTRA FEES TO BAIL OUT THE MTA ?!?!?!?!?

If I live out east in Suffolk, or up north in Dutchess and Orange Counties and never even use the trains or the buses, why should I have to pay for anything...or how about most parts of Staten Island or parts of eastern Queens where readily available mass transit is sometimes non-existent.

It's one thing to raise these fees and use the money to pay for repairs to our crumbling/ congested roads and bridges or to pay Nassau and Suffolk counties the money they deserve for policing NYS roadways.

But to take hundreds of dollars in fees only to use it for something that has no direct effect on most of these people is insane.

If NYC doesn't want it's train and bus service disrupted then the city should be figuring out ways to give money to the MTA not passing the buck to neighboring counties. This also applies to the neighboring counties for their MTA commuter rail and bus services.

Oh and if the commuter tax is brought back guess what, all the surrounding counties will do the SAME EXACT THING to NYC residents working in their counties... and thats no small number, by last estimates is close to 400,000 New York City residents. This would just be one big tax all around hurting EVERYONE.

What I find ridiculous about this proposal is that a Mini Cooper exceeds this weight class. And, if glob is right and they go with GVWR, a Smartcar will be 'overweight' by this limitation. Bring the minimum up to a reasonable rate and I'd be behind this, otherwise this is a "You're f*cked if you own something with more than two wheels" fee.

How about specifically targeting vans, delivery trucks, commercial vehicles that use the streets/bridges the most mixed with congestion pricing? That'll make sure only the people that need to and can afford to drive into the city will do so while getting much needed revenue. Otherwise, I think this is doomed to fail.

So all the drivers will leave NY now? They won't fare better elsewhere.

California car registration: $55 ($34/year + $21 California Highway Patrol fee)
Washington: Between $43.75 and $63.75
Oregon: $55/year.
Pennsylvania: $36/year.
Texas: Between $40 and $58/year.
Idaho: $30-$60/year.
Arkansas: $17.50-$32.75/year.
Florida: $27.60-$45.60/year.

Et al. It's about time New York's registration fees matched those of the rest of the country.

#15, the people who live in Orange, Dutchess, Nassau or Suffolk counties benefit greatly from the tax income generated in NYC, which supports the rest of the state. In addition, when they bring their cars into the city on our toll-free bridges, use MTA mass transit like Metro North and the LIRR, without paying the city taxes that residents here have to cough up, they take more than they give back to the city. It's time for NYC to stop shouldering the burden.

The average car weighs 3000 pounds. Therefore, the average cost to register a vehicle will be $163 annually. That's $13.58 monthly.

You had to figure they were going to squeeze car owners somehow. Let's squeeze millionaires next. Institute the millionaire's tax!

Tax Tax tax. That's the goverments version of the old parental "because I said so."

So, we will have a 450% increase in fees for the "average" driver and 1400% increase for people with large vehicles, is this really the best plan that can be made? How about a $.50 increase in subway fares, it is a 25% increase, but people are up in arms about trying that.

#43- Do you own a car and do not ever use MTA?

@Kojak

I drive a Ford Taurus, and I'm no Joe Six Pack. In the time before government bailouts, the Ford Taurus saved FoMoCo from the extinction, and it's success (until Ford dropped the ball and let it become a rental queen) employed millions for the 20+ years it was in production full force.

I will be cheating even more on my taxes if this goes through.

I did wallpaper the 1/2 bath in my 5th home with discarded metro cards. I love that shade of yellow.

Now I'm off
to do donuts in the dunes
Go ahead
smell my fumes

People are already paying far more for housing than nearly anywhere else in the country. Plus we pay a massive city tax. Don't forget beer is not $5 for a budweiser in most parts of the country.

If that didn't drive you out of town, I don't see how an extra $200 annually on top of the expense of gas, insurance (also much higher than elsewhere), repairs, and parking tickets is going to drive you out of town.

If this is the straw that breaks the camel's back, have fun in South Dakota. Crack open a $1 brewski for me.

I'm just wondering what the hell the city would have done had we not had the housing bubble hit and make the pigs go into a feeding frenzy with the income from higher taxes and wall-street bonuses. If the past 10 years were made normal - where houses and apartments here were still only slightly higher than middle America (I paid less than 100K for my house in Williamsburg about 10 years ago). Hell, until 9-11 houses/apts weren't really all that ridiculous in most parts of the city. So what would we be doing now if prices would have remained with the same 2-3% increases that the past decade showed? The city and MTA both BLOATED itself on all these gains. Its time to cut the fat out of the government and MTA and let them survive on what they should have had all along. It can be done and not on the backs of the citizens. Why does every plan the mayor and MTA have call for us to try to keep the status quo on money paid into the city. Cut out the bloat and quit renaming bridges and crap thats wasting what money they have.

Maybe if the MTA provided better service more people would be willing to use it. How about trying to make taking mass transportation more convenient than driving? That should do the trick.
This country is quickly turning into a socialist state. This is crazy.

So there's this story out there that the MTA and other mass transit systems sold their rolling stock to banks in a leaseback arrangement that allowed the banks to use the depreciation on those assets to get a big tax advantage. So the whole thing revolves arond that tax loophole but then it gets plugged up and not only could the banks no longer buy subway cars, but transit systems became liable for huge break up fees when the insurance on these deals, underwritten by, you guessed it, AIG, blew up. Now the transit systems are in dutch for huge sums of money and are begging for a handout.I'd like to see the MTA get the money upon their release from prison.

This is ridiculous. I live in Riverdale and it's so inconvenient to take public transportation. It takes me an hour and a half on a bus or subway to get to work in midtown, but I can drive there in 30 minutes... so obviously I opt to drive. Car owners shouldn't be required to pay extra for the buses and subways that they likely don't take because the service to where they live is awful.

Oh well. This just gives me a better reason to keep my car registered in NJ instead of NY.

#59 Because in addition to the many times that public transportation suites my needs perfectly fine, there are many other times were I go places in Queens or Long Island for personal or business reasons and those trips are not feasible via public transportation. I do have to agree that Manhattan is the only borough where you can really get anywhere in a timely manner. The subways in Queens and Brooklyn are concentrated in select locations, and buses are a joke.

#60- So you're going to be happy with paying a lot more than that $100/yr for your vehicle?

#63- Genius! And how to do you propose they figure out who should and should not get taxed that $200 you're proposing?

Contractors, electricians, plumbers, and the like should also get charged this extra $200?

#65- No, because it's kind of difficult to haul hundreds of pounds of tools and equipment everywhere.

Just FYI.

p.s.: within the five boroughs this makes sense.. but all of the other counties? holy crap. that affects so many people that have damn near nothing to do with nyc and it's problems.