Streetsblog New York City

Make everyone pay a $2 toll every time they use the subway or bus. That'll teach 'em!

How about we tax tuna salad sandwiches? People eat alot of those. Or ugly suburban lawn displays around the holidays? Or best yet, let's put a surcharge on oxygen consumption, that way people would breathe less.

How about we don't tax anything, and instead let the MTA into bankruptcy, where it can have some of those 400-odd 75$K PR jobs shed and its Union contracts reviewed by a judge?

The State Senate passes a law defining the MTA as a bank, and the Authority applies for TARP funds.

Future operating costs are funded with a tax on those ugly metal bedpost-looking fences and railings that have started infesting the outer boroughs.

Lets give this jet fuel tax idea another look before we dump it.

It would tax something that is acutely harmful for the environment, namely, carbon emissions injected directly into the upper levels of the atmosphere. It would encourage travelers to take Amtrak. Would it dampen tourism? Not more than a $2.50 subway base fare. I would still rather see tolls. But if a jet fuel tax can really generate $1.7 billion for mass transit, that is a lot of money.

I actually came up with a state wide bail out plan during my liquid lunch.

I'll vote for you, Mike!

The Port Authority, it should be noted, is not a New York State agency and is not controlled by the state legislature. I don't think New Jersey would buy into this plan.

I suppose if I had to rank my preferences for how to fund the MTA, based on what the State Senate has proposed or evaluated so far, it would be:

1) tolls on the free bridges
2) jet fuel tax
3) payroll tax
4) taxi surcharge funding upstate roads
5) buying Canadian prescription drugs
6) investing pension funds in the stock market
7) cutting service and drastically raising fares and tolls on some bridges while keeping other bridges free

I'm confused by how this jet fuel tax could be feasible. A $2 tax per gallon of jet fuel works out to an additional $20,000 per flight on your average cross-country flight on a 757. That works out to an additional $100 on your ticket, assuming the plane is at full capacity. This tax would make New York airports - and not just JFK and LGA - completely uncompetitive. Just because these airports and Newark are already at capacity doesn't mean consumers won't make a switch. Or, even worse, they will choose to drive instead.