Philosophical Exposure on Congestion Tax

As we have been saying all along, the underlying philosophy of the congestion taxers is to continue to raise the cost of living and doing business in this city-all in the name of what is misconceived as good public policy. Those who entertain this point of view, and have done so for years before Kermit the Mayor came on board, are congenitally anti-auto-and by extension have no concern for the impacts that their schemes will have on the businesses of the city.

This underlying rationale is exposed in today's NY Sun in an article that looks at the possibility of a "free" subway system. The fantasy in question, is the brainchild of our old buddy George Haikalis, a man we last encountered in the AirTrain fight with the Port Authority. What Haikalis envisions, and the concept is contained in a report of his Institute for Rational Mobility, is a $16 toll on all bridges and tunnels.

Which is exactly where we are heading with the mayor's plan because, just like the case of the London tax, it is only a matter of time before the insatiable appetite of the MTA need to be re-fed. What's amusing is the response of Gene Russianoff, who described the idea as a "platonic ideal." Which reminds us of the late philosopher Karl Popper who rightly saw in Platonism the seeds of totalitarianism.

None of these folks give a rat ass about how any of this will impact the city's economy. It is amusing, in a perverse sort of way, however, to see the business scions in league with this philosophy. We really don't see this as a meeting of the minds, but rather as symptomatic of the toady effect that the mayor has on these neutered folks-When the mayor says jump, they simply say, "How High?"