New York City Insider: Group to MTA: Stop Fare Evaders; Skip Congestion Tax.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  NEW YORK DRIVERS TO PAY CONTROVERSIAL NEW TAX TO OFFSET COSTS FROM BUS AND SUBWAY FARE SCOFFLAWS.

 

Group Calls on MTA to Clean Up Mess Before Taxing New Yorkers Even More.

 

New York-Feb. 23…The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is likely losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year to bus and subway fare evaders, and New York drivers are being wrongly stung with a controversial new tax to make up for the MTA’s failure to crack down on the scofflaws, the group Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free today charged.

 

Nearly one third of New York City bus riders are now refusing to pay fares, according to a story released Tuesday, costing the MTA $56 million in the final three months of 2021 alone. Subway turnstile jumpers are not paying fares at similar rates. Together, Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free estimates, the city and state are losing upwards of a quarter of billion in revenue each year, about half of what congestion pricing would yield annually after operational costs. 

 

“The MTA doesn’t need to impose a new tax on New Yorkers to shore up its budget,” said Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free spokesman Joshua Bienstock,” it simply needs to enforce fare collection and to cut down on the waste for which it’s infamous. Once again we are seeing taxpayers getting socked from the failure of the government to do its job, and that’s not right.

 

“A new tax on drivers is a bad idea for myriad reasons,'' Mr. Bienstock continued. “In addition to hurting low- and middle-income New Yorkers living in transit deserts most, this regressive tax would massively increase traffic north of 60th Street in Manhattan and in the outer boroughs, redirect carbon-belching trucks into communities of color, and, perhaps most urgently, seriously inhibit Midtown’s and Downtown’s economic recovery. How about a little common sense from our government leaders?”

 

Estimates for a congestion pricing tax range between $9 and $35 per day.

 

 

 

Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free, a diverse coalition of civic, business, and labor organizations and businesses throughout New York City, argues that implementing a tax on vehicles traveling south of 6oth Street in Manhattan will, among other things, permanently damage efforts to revitalize the two districts.