Funny Money

We have already commented about the lame rally that the mayor held yesterday in support of his congestion tax. In fact, we were too kind-it was actually much lamer than we had originally thought. With over $3.5 million in the pro congestion tax budget, you would have thought that the mayor could have been able to generate more than around 100 rallyers.

Now, as Metro's Patrick Arden points out in this morning's paper, it appears that even this meager showing was the result of-paying the kids in the green shirts to show up; "The troops wore bright green shirts and held up signs. Two teenage cousins from Soundview...wore their shirts but didn't know much about congestion pricing. They showed up because one of the groups was paying $10 an hour."

Now it certainly doesn't get any lamer than that. With congestion taxing it appears that even money is not enough to generate any real enthusiasm for the scheme.