As the wealthy lap up their luxury, the rest of us are now expected to find more money we do not have to rebuild our bridges and roads and supply jobs for the building trades unions.
Such is the message conveyed by our leaders in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, if indirectly through flunkies. They refuse to raise taxes on the rich or profitable corporations, yet they want us to pay higher tolls and fees.
“The pain of higher tolls is nothing compared with the pain we would feel if the span of the George Washington Bridge collapses,” writes Mitchell Moss in a New York Daily News op-ed. (nydn, p27, 8/17/11)
“There are dozens of critical maintenance projects like that - basic improvements that need to be made to keep things running smoothly,” the urban policy professor continued. “Contrary to popular belief, tolls are actually the best way to pay for highways and bridges.”
In a letter to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Ricke C. Foster, president of the Contractors Association of Eastern Pennsylvania, writes: “The state has suffered for decades without the needed funds to invest in our highways and public transit systems. The recent recommendations by the Transportation Funding Advisory Commission offer a commonsense solution to our state’s transportation problem, in particular, raising additional funds specifically from transportation users.
“The cost for a typical motorist will be only 70 cents per week in the first year, growing to a still-modest $2.50 per week by year five - less than the cost of a gallon of gasoline,” he continues. “It’s a plan that will put Pennsylvania back on track to economic recovery and provide for our long-term prosperity.”
No argument. Our infrastructure has long been deteriorating. We know that. Likewise, repair projects to this end will create many jobs. We also know that the governors of both New York and New Jersey refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has rebuffed all calls for imposing a production tax on wealthy corporations that have been extracting shale gas underneath Pennsylvania land.
So the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey antagonized motorists on both sides of the Hudson when in late August it proposed massive toll hikes on its bridges and tunnels across the Hudson and its bridges between New Jersey and Staten Island.
A commission in Pennsylvania recommended increases in taxes and fees to pay for repairs of state roads, bridges and mass-transportation systems. The increases would include annual vehicle and drivers’ fees.
The Port Authority originally proposed raising tolls for E-ZPass users from $8 to $12 and tolls for drivers who pay with cash would be charged almost double, from $8 to $15 for each trip. Fares for the PA’s subway-style service known as PATH would rise from $1.75 to $2.75.
The PA mess swiftly got ugly. Letters to the editor that were published were almost unprintable. Union workers filled some hearings to argue that the toll increases would produce jobs and upgrade the infrastructure, the NY News reported. (nydn, p5, 8/17/11)
“This plan will be a lifeline for New York City workers, but it will also be a lifeline for our city’s infrastructure,” said Bernard Callegari, a member of Construction & General Building Laborers’ Local 79.
Ah! So poor and middle-class citizens should pay higher tolls and and train fares so we can give Callegari and his friends jobs - jobs that will probably provide higher salaries than many of these people currently earn.
Also, union representative Michael McGuire said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch. We have serious infrastructure needs.”
Added Local 79 member Dennis Lee, “Haven’t we learned something from (the bridge collapse in) Minnesota when all those people died? Are we looking to be a Third World nation?”
Joe Valentine, vice president of Taxpayers of Staten Island, engaged in a shouting match with a union member after saying, “They come in here and try to intimidate me and the rest of Staten Island. You people are not even from Staten Island…I want your hands out of my pocket.”
Few people would be surprised if the unions and politicians orchestrated this display. The Port Authority would get its toll and fare hikes and the unions would get their jobs. Everyone else would be squeezed even more at a time when most people are barely keeping their heads above water, financially speaking.
That kind of conduct on the part of the unions is a sure way to lose sympathy. Any reasonable person would be pleased for anyone to find work, but those who learned of this behavior is probably anxious to see these guys waiting in long employment lines.
If the politicians were behind it, they artfully played the divide-and-conquer game.
What the union members should have done was team up with the commuters. Instead, they apparently fell for the oldest trick in the book.
What’s more, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie balked at the PA’s toll-hike proposals - even though they appoint the members of the authority. Nobody believed them when they claimed they were caught flatfooted by the news.
Nor did anyone acclaim the governors knights in shining armor who rescued them from such high tolls. The PA reduced the toll hikes considerably, but would raise the PATH fares 25 cents each year for the next four year instead of boosting it by $1 in one year.
Is it necessary to raise tolls to fund infrastructure repairs? Some of the wealthiest people in the world live in New York and New Jersey. They were already paying extra taxes before Christie ended it in New Jersey and Cuomo agreed to let them run out in New York. Cuomo campaigned on a no-tax pledge and must contend with a Republican-controlled state Senate.
Christie sacrificed money for school and community services to soothe the rich. As a precursor to the toll increase, fares on New Jersey Transit trains rose nearly as much as 50 percent on May 1, 2010; a round-trip from Trenton to New York increased from $21.50 to $31.
So it’s strange to read Christie’s words in The New York Post: “What’s the cost of not paying higher tolls, if in fact we stop investing in our infrastructure to the region?…It’s about creating good-paying jobs for building tradesmen and women across our state, to put them to work on these projects.” (NYPost, p6, 8/18/11)
Rob Wonderling, president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, tried to justify Pennsylvania’s fee increases in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed: “Additional proposals called for generating the revenue through an increase in the annual vehicle and drivers’ fees to inflation - by $13 and $5, respectively. The fees paid by these citizens have not been adjusted since 1987.”
So a failure to adjust said fees for 24 years obligates an increase. Maybe the state can think about adjusting the fees downward.
Such is the message conveyed by our leaders in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, if indirectly through flunkies. They refuse to raise taxes on the rich or profitable corporations, yet they want us to pay higher tolls and fees.
“The pain of higher tolls is nothing compared with the pain we would feel if the span of the George Washington Bridge collapses,” writes Mitchell Moss in a New York Daily News op-ed. (nydn, p27, 8/17/11)
“There are dozens of critical maintenance projects like that - basic improvements that need to be made to keep things running smoothly,” the urban policy professor continued. “Contrary to popular belief, tolls are actually the best way to pay for highways and bridges.”
In a letter to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Ricke C. Foster, president of the Contractors Association of Eastern Pennsylvania, writes: “The state has suffered for decades without the needed funds to invest in our highways and public transit systems. The recent recommendations by the Transportation Funding Advisory Commission offer a commonsense solution to our state’s transportation problem, in particular, raising additional funds specifically from transportation users.
“The cost for a typical motorist will be only 70 cents per week in the first year, growing to a still-modest $2.50 per week by year five - less than the cost of a gallon of gasoline,” he continues. “It’s a plan that will put Pennsylvania back on track to economic recovery and provide for our long-term prosperity.”
No argument. Our infrastructure has long been deteriorating. We know that. Likewise, repair projects to this end will create many jobs. We also know that the governors of both New York and New Jersey refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has rebuffed all calls for imposing a production tax on wealthy corporations that have been extracting shale gas underneath Pennsylvania land.
So the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey antagonized motorists on both sides of the Hudson when in late August it proposed massive toll hikes on its bridges and tunnels across the Hudson and its bridges between New Jersey and Staten Island.
A commission in Pennsylvania recommended increases in taxes and fees to pay for repairs of state roads, bridges and mass-transportation systems. The increases would include annual vehicle and drivers’ fees.
The Port Authority originally proposed raising tolls for E-ZPass users from $8 to $12 and tolls for drivers who pay with cash would be charged almost double, from $8 to $15 for each trip. Fares for the PA’s subway-style service known as PATH would rise from $1.75 to $2.75.
The PA mess swiftly got ugly. Letters to the editor that were published were almost unprintable. Union workers filled some hearings to argue that the toll increases would produce jobs and upgrade the infrastructure, the NY News reported. (nydn, p5, 8/17/11)
“This plan will be a lifeline for New York City workers, but it will also be a lifeline for our city’s infrastructure,” said Bernard Callegari, a member of Construction & General Building Laborers’ Local 79.
Ah! So poor and middle-class citizens should pay higher tolls and and train fares so we can give Callegari and his friends jobs - jobs that will probably provide higher salaries than many of these people currently earn.
Also, union representative Michael McGuire said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch. We have serious infrastructure needs.”
Added Local 79 member Dennis Lee, “Haven’t we learned something from (the bridge collapse in) Minnesota when all those people died? Are we looking to be a Third World nation?”
Joe Valentine, vice president of Taxpayers of Staten Island, engaged in a shouting match with a union member after saying, “They come in here and try to intimidate me and the rest of Staten Island. You people are not even from Staten Island…I want your hands out of my pocket.”
Few people would be surprised if the unions and politicians orchestrated this display. The Port Authority would get its toll and fare hikes and the unions would get their jobs. Everyone else would be squeezed even more at a time when most people are barely keeping their heads above water, financially speaking.
That kind of conduct on the part of the unions is a sure way to lose sympathy. Any reasonable person would be pleased for anyone to find work, but those who learned of this behavior is probably anxious to see these guys waiting in long employment lines.
If the politicians were behind it, they artfully played the divide-and-conquer game.
What the union members should have done was team up with the commuters. Instead, they apparently fell for the oldest trick in the book.
What’s more, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie balked at the PA’s toll-hike proposals - even though they appoint the members of the authority. Nobody believed them when they claimed they were caught flatfooted by the news.
Nor did anyone acclaim the governors knights in shining armor who rescued them from such high tolls. The PA reduced the toll hikes considerably, but would raise the PATH fares 25 cents each year for the next four year instead of boosting it by $1 in one year.
Is it necessary to raise tolls to fund infrastructure repairs? Some of the wealthiest people in the world live in New York and New Jersey. They were already paying extra taxes before Christie ended it in New Jersey and Cuomo agreed to let them run out in New York. Cuomo campaigned on a no-tax pledge and must contend with a Republican-controlled state Senate.
Christie sacrificed money for school and community services to soothe the rich. As a precursor to the toll increase, fares on New Jersey Transit trains rose nearly as much as 50 percent on May 1, 2010; a round-trip from Trenton to New York increased from $21.50 to $31.
So it’s strange to read Christie’s words in The New York Post: “What’s the cost of not paying higher tolls, if in fact we stop investing in our infrastructure to the region?…It’s about creating good-paying jobs for building tradesmen and women across our state, to put them to work on these projects.” (NYPost, p6, 8/18/11)
Rob Wonderling, president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, tried to justify Pennsylvania’s fee increases in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed: “Additional proposals called for generating the revenue through an increase in the annual vehicle and drivers’ fees to inflation - by $13 and $5, respectively. The fees paid by these citizens have not been adjusted since 1987.”
So a failure to adjust said fees for 24 years obligates an increase. Maybe the state can think about adjusting the fees downward.
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