Saving the MTA By Taxing Cabbies and Their Passengers

What's the latest "solution" to fixing the MTA's budget mess? Albany seems to think that a 50 cent surcharge for every yellow cab fare is the solution along with multiple taxes and fees increased that result in less money in the pockets of all New Yorkers, not just the rich:

In the new plan, a 50-cent surcharge will be added to all cab fares and drivers will be paying new fees and charges as well.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance calls the idea unfair, punitive and a sign of how out of touch Albany is with New York City's transit problem. Executive Director Bhairavi Desai says a fee placed on taxi rides to fund the MTA would be a cut in pay for drivers and working New Yorkers.

Included in Paterson's plan: 50-cent surcharge on taxi fares, $2 to $3 surcharge on car registrations, $2 to $3 surcharge on driver's licenses, a car rental surcharge, a hotel occupancy tax surcharge, and a sales tax surcharges in areas serviced by the MTA.

The deal will also incorporate an 8 percent fare and toll hike, down from the 23 - 25 percent hike proposed in the MTA "doomsday" budget.

An 8 percent increase means single-ride bus/subway fares will rise from $2 to $2.25 not $2.50 as proposed by the MTA; a monthly Metro Card fare will rise from $81 to $88 not $103.

It's guaranteed to result in more cabbies going out of business, because more and more people are using credit cards and the transaction fees eat into the take home pay of the cabbies. If they have to eat still more fees, that means that they will be squeezed even further.

Throw in the expected gas price increases that come with the summer driving season, and cabbies wont be able to turn a profit on their shifts at all, because it will all go to costs that are not only outside their control, but which will result in less income collected by the state.

As for the other taxes and fees, people don't have the same visceral reaction because you don't pay the DMV fees every day or see the costs increase as frequently. Commuters getting hammered with mass transit costs rising will see less money in their pockets at the end of the day - far more lost to new taxes than gained under President Obama's stimulus package.

It's once again another instance of the Albany shell game where taxes are imposed to cover for costs elsewhere.