In New York a year of increased taxes will cost less than a month of parking fees
The title of this post is an example of the sort of reasoning we'd do if we weren't so damn…theoretical.
Anyway…
M.T.A. Seeks Tax Increases Over 5 Years
By CHARLES V. BAGLI and MICHAEL LUO
Moving to address its financial crisis, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is proposing to increase a half-dozen business, real estate and fuel taxes to raise $900 million a year to help pay for the transit network's five-year rebuilding program.
The proposal by the authority's chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, is being presented to the Pataki administration and the State Legislature as a way to deal with the authority's crushing debt and capital costs, a financial burden that has forced the authority to consider a mix of transit fare increases and service cuts when the authority's board meets Dec. 16. Mr. Kalikow is an appointee of Gov. George E. Pataki, and his plan presents a challenge to the Republican governor, an ardent opponent of higher taxes who has yet to come up with his own plan to meet the expenses.
The proposal includes raising the real property transfer tax and mortgage recording taxes, new levies that could cost homeowners and businesses hundreds if not thousands of additional dollars during property transactions. Mr. Kalikow also proposed raising corporate taxes and the petroleum business tax, a tax paid by importers of foreign fuel. The new taxes, to be applied statewide, would not prevent the fare increases or cutbacks that are being considered this month, but by supplying the debt service on a bond issue, it could improve the authority's financial situation in future years.
In an effort to demonstrate the authority's desperate financial situation and gain support for a plan that could be politically volatile, Mr. Kalikow and Katherine N. Lapp, the authority's executive director, have been meeting quietly over the past two weeks with business leaders from groups like the Real Estate Board of New York and the Partnership for New York City.
The authority needs to come up with $16 billion in new revenue over the next five years to cover planned capital improvements, like bringing the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central Terminal and buying new rail cars for the Metro-North system. Of that, $11 billion is needed just to keep the system in good repair. The authority has also announced that it will need a series of additional fare increases starting in 2007 to cover multibillion-dollar operating deficits projected for the coming years.
