Pushing Green Could Drive Taxpayers Into Red

Once again, Mayor Mike Bloomberg's nanny state tendencies are taking hold. The Taxi and Limousine Commission is requiring that the ubiquitous black Town Cars will become a thing of the past as the city demands higher mileage requirements on those vehicles.

The City is forcing the owners of these vehicles to switch to hybrids and other vehicles claiming that they're going to reduce emissions. This is an unfunded mandate on those businesses, which is to be carried by those businesses. So, he's also pushing for tax breaks:

Mayor Bloomberg said he expected drivers to support the proposal because it would bring them more business and save them thousands of dollars in fuel costs each year. Increasingly, he said, the companies that use the cars, which are summoned to specific locations rather than being hailed in the street, are demanding the greener vehicles.

The mayor’s plan would also include incentives like tax breaks and low-cost-financing options to make it easier for the drivers, many of whom must buy their cars, to afford the higher down payments needed for hybrid vehicles.

Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers are working with a black-car company, Executive Transportation Group, to help provide low-interest loans for hybrid-vehicle purchases. Best Ford Taxi and Hudson Toyota/Penske Automotive Group have said they would offer favorable financing packages to the drivers. And the city is asking the state to approve the waiver of sales taxes on purchases.

How much is this going to cost the state? No one is saying.

You might think that this doesn't amount to much or that you don't use the town cars, but he's done the same thing to the yellow cabs. How much longer before he does the same to other vehicles?

Now, ask yourself why he's not demanding the same changes of the City owned fleet of vehicles? Instead, he's putting the onus on private entities and having taxpayers pick up the tab because the owners are balking at the higher initial costs.