The theory of progressive taxation is that it is fair for taxes to involve equal sacrifices from everyone – which is not the same as equal payment from everyone.

If you had to pay an extra $1000 a year in taxes, you might have to make the sacrifice of having to buy a smaller second home. If someone at the poverty level had to pay an extra $1000 a year in taxes, they might become homeless because they could not afford their rent – a much greater sacrifice than you would have to make to pay that amount. Your complaint is just based on self-interest, not on fairness.

The theory of public funding for education is that everyone benefits when the population is better educated. Imagine how much less prosperous the economy as a whole (including you) would be if, say, we had one-half or one-tenth as many college graduates as we currently have.

If everyone were single and childless like you, there would me no one to work after you retire. People who have children are not only paying tax for education but are also making the personal effort to raise their children. They are doing much more than you are to produce the next generation of workers who will keep the economy going after your generation retires. You are not subsidizing them; they are subsidizing you.

The tolls will encourage people to cram on the BQE rather than using the FDR, although the increased capacity as a result of people not going out of their way to the free bridges and backing up exits might offset that entirely.

And there is no peak hour pricing, although there certainly could be.

Meanwhile, if the money is supposed to go to the MTA, the question is how to get it there. I still like my “bridge swap” idea, with the city trading bridges to Manhattan to the MTA (three of which also carry trains) for the other TBTA bridges. In the end, the city does get a revenue boost from that plan, while the MTA gets a way to manage overall traffic in its primary market.

Let’s talk relative merits.

I think the commission process (which many were so terrified of several months ago) has given us a much, much better program.

And that is the bridge tolling plan. WAY more money for transit, far less startup cost, and much less intrusive (fewer cameras).

If I’d called it “the Queensborough Bridge,” would you have called me elitist for taking a Manhattan perspective about where the bridge goes?

The reason to consider raising parking taxes is this: as Hilary notes, Manhattanites like yourself who pay to park are the hard-core motorists in the discussion, because you don’t have to worry about losing your on-street space when you move your car. That’s the benefit you get from garaging: that you can take the car out and drive to the uptown Fairway, do your shopping, and come home without worrying about finding a space. So obviously your garage buddies are using their cars more than the on-street parkers.

If raising parking taxes forces people like yourself to consider using a rental car instead of owning a personal vehicle, that not only reduces the total auto population in Manhattan but reduces the number of those noncommuting shopping trips you take.

So don’t think of a tax hike as a subsidy to onstreet parkers, think of it as paying your fair share for the opportunity you have to use your car whenever you want.

If you’re serious about not using the car at your convenience, but don’t want to rent a car, you could always garage the whip somewhere cheaper. The big indoor garage on 184th and Broadway charges about $250 a month and is close to both the 1 and A trains.

And as for “news you can use,” may I suggest shopping around for car insurance? If you paid what I do (for a Manhattan-registered vehicle, natch) instead of your inflated rate, you would be saving more than you’d spend on that increased parking tax on your car’s $400/month home.

Rant over.

http://www.amazon.com/Heavenly-Weekends-Daytrips-Overnight-Getaways/dp/0789308584
http://www.amazon.com/Frommers-Escapes-Without-Wonderful-Weekends/dp/0764598295/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/002-2938311-4402466
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Walker-Hikes-York-Metropolitan/dp/0385141408

And I support your right to complain about ending the parking garage tax exemption. But as the late Sen. Moynihan said,

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

what do you all think?

Re: zoning charge. That would be two fare zones, which we moved away from to the applause of the Straphangers, Giuliani and Pataki. The Republicans at the time actually liked the thought of greasing up the many voters of their out in the hinterlands of Brooklyn Queens and SI. It all was washed into a large fare increase for everyone else and disappeared in the fog of metro card. I don’t see us ever backtracking on that though you see where the resistance to CP is now. Those people have largely forgot the end of the two fare zones.

You can’t save your ass and your face at the same time.