Letters to the Editor
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‘Mayor Wants To Extend Sales Tax’
I read with dismay two articles in your newspaper [New York, “Mayor Wants To Extend Sales Tax,” December 12, 2007 and New York, “Report: Income Disparity Between Motorist, Mass Transit Commuters,” December 12, 2007].
It seems that the old adage “money is the crack-cocaine of politics” also applies to government.
John Tepper Marlin, the former chief economist in the city’s comptrollers office, in the sales tax article posed the following rhetorical question, “If its (the tax) already there and no body is agitating to have it reduced, and there are no demonstrations in the streets, why would you want to cut it.”
Neil Giacobbi, of the advocacy group Environmental Defense, in the congestion pricing article stated, “people drive because they can afford to and … Congestion Pricing would evenly distribute the cost of maintaining the transit system.”
These comments reveal the deleterious attitude prevalent in this city that taxes are good and more of them are better.
If the power to tax is the power to destroy then we must ask how constructive these measures are for the city?
The popularity of sale tax holidays in the past and the need of a tax abeyance for clothing purchases under $110 says no.
London’s example of a congestion pricing system, where approximately 50% of the revenues collected goes to running the system, also results in an answer of no.
JAMES VIGOTTY
New York, N.Y.
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