Rant #3,608: Pay the Devil

Congestion pricing started in New York City--Manhattan--yesterday, on a Sunday of all days of the week.

The plan impacts drivers beginning at 60th street to the southern tip.of Manhattan.

This is another nail in the coffin for a city that is on life support at this point.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authirity said it is necessary to pare down the number of vehicles moving around Manhattan, and it will open up the city, and make it nit only safer, but less polluted.

It will also force more people to use mass transit, and good luck if you use the unsafe subway.

Many others believe that this is nothing more than a political move, an extra tax that drivers have to pay on top of other driving fees they need to pay, and it is being used to cover up the financial inequities of the MTA.

The plan was put on hold by New York Governor Kathy "The Yokel" Hochul prior to the presidential election, because it was so linked to New York Democrats, it would hurt Kamala Harris in the race against Donald Trump.

The problem was that Harris ran such an inept campaign that it really had no impact on the outcome.

Now that the plan has been reinstated, it really is just another tax that drivers are going to have to pay.

But it has a ripple effect on so many directions ...

I guarantee that if my father were alive, and still driving his cab, he would retire immediately once this was put on place, because cab fares being what they are, customers have to pay the additional tax, and thus, their total fare would impact the tips that he received, and impact those tips in a downward way.

And cabs pick up passengers by cruising through the city, so he would have to pay $9 each time he entered the pricing zone ... multiple times a day.

And thpse bringing goods into Manhattan ... don't you think they will.pass down their extra costs to consumers?

Sure, there are discounts for certain drivers, but the way Hochul explained this is that the current plan "only" charges $9 for regular passenger cars, the original plan was $15, so she opined thst drivers are actually "saving" $6 on each trip.

That is like saying that you are "saving" money when you are buying something thst you wouldn't necessarily buy without a sale price; thus, what money are you saving if you are making a purchase on something you wouldn't necessarily buy?

And, of course, not only will that $9 price escalate over time, but right at the get go, drivers of other types of vehicles--trucks--are already paying more than that.

Completely insane logic, but New Yorkers voted for this fool for governor--and voted fir her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, who originally came up with this money grab, and has since come out against the plan--so they are getting what they deserve.

But what about those from New Jersey, who are being taxed for their driving no matter which way they turn?

All legislative proposals to further put a hold on congestion pricing have failed, so the plan, at least for the immediate future, is a go.

I haven't had to drive into Manhattan in probably about 10 years, and happily, I haven't worked in Manhattan for probably 40 years or so, so this plan really doesn't affect me at all.

But I think about those people who must drive into Manhattan, and to have another tax thrown at them is just plain wrong.

Wait until today, when drivers will really feel the pinch, and you just know that there will be reverberations of this plan in the coming days and months.

Even President-elect Trump has come out against the plan, although I don't really know what he can do about it.

But again, New York voters knew about this plan years ago, yet they still voted Hochul into office.

Perhaps the only way to stop this assault on the public's pocketbook is simple--

Just vote her out the next time around ... I can almost guarantee that her opponents will all be against congestion pricing, as a major selling point to their campaigns.

But are New York State voters smart enough to make this obvious fix?

At this point, I wouldn't bet on it.