The congestion price tax by the MTA will have devastating and lasting effects, toppling once the greatest City in the world.
The middle class and working class will suffer immeasurably since many rely on their vehicles to go to work as they live in transportation deserts. Cab drivers, restaurants, and Broadway shows will all suffer the wrath.
As transportation and delivery costs increase, the costs of goods and services will skyrocket. Even NYU Hospital is concerned that it will lose crucial staff and that its patients won’t return for their medical appointments.
While we want to encourage the use of mass transit, many are forced to take cars and cabs since our subways are unsafe and the Albany legislature favors criminals over victims.
The other argument is that it would reduce traffic emissions. However, neighborhoods with the highest asthma and pollution cases, like the Bronx, Harlem, and Queens, would see even more traffic and pollution since cars would use their routes to avoid the toll.
Why does an agency full of corruption and ineptness need to be rewarded with additional taxpayer monies? Our city has the most decrepit subways, roadways, and bridges. Where has the money for tolls gone all these years? We lose $700 million annually to fare beaters and another $150 million in fraudulently evading license plates. Plenty of other states and countries have far less revenue and much better transit infrastructure because of prudent management.
Then, there are numerous instances of theft, such as fraudulent overtime and boondoggle contracts, such as a stairway costing 100 million dollars or an elevator with a price tag of 300 million dollars.
We have bureaucrats and gluttonous politicians who have never worked in the private sector, like the hypocritical DOT Commissioner, who rides around all day with a gas-guzzling giant taxpayer SUV, promoting the elimination of vehicles in the City. Ironically or intentionally, almost all of the congestion in the City is self-inflicted with designated bus lanes, Citi bike dock lanes in streets, and outside dining tables taking crucial street areas.
Democrat New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said it best: It is lunacy to enact congestion pricing when voters made it clear in the election that they are suffering and that our elected officials simply do not care about the working and middle class struggling to make ends meet and survive in this once great city. New York has already lost two million residents and will lose a whole lot more if congestion pricing is enacted. Stop the destruction.
* John J. Ciafone, Esq. is an award-winning Attorney with practices in NY, NJ and Washington DC. He is the Executive Leader of the Aldo’s Democratic Organization.
