New York Democrats Plan Tax Hikes, Tolls to Deal with Subway Crisis

NEW YORK CITY, NY — New York’s top two Democrats, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, are dealing with the city’s transportation crisis in the way they know how — by imposing more taxes and tolls on New Yorkers.

On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was looking into plans to bring congestion charges to the Big Apple.

“Congestion pricing is an idea whose time has come,” Cuomo told the New York Times, although he didn’t go into specifics about the plan and what it would charge. He only said that he had met with “interested parties.”

While he gave no specifics, the Times noted that a local activist group proposed a toll of $5.54 in each direction at four bridges that cross the East River into Manhattan. While whatever plan Cuomo proposes is likely to be controversial, he says he is optimistic as “society needs a wake-up call that readjusts their priorities.”

Cuomo’s push comes a week after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio came up with his own solution — a hike in taxes for the rich to help pay for increasing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) budget.

“[W]e need a millionaire’s tax so that New Yorkers who typically travel in first class pay their fair share so the rest of us can get around, so the rest of us can get to work, so the rest of us can live our lives here in this city,” he said at a press conference last week.

According to the New York Post, the income tax hike would raise the rate for individuals making more than $500,000 and married couples earning over $1 million from 3.876 percent to 4.41 percent.

That hike would require the approval from the state legislature and from Gov. Cuomo — who has previously opposed proposed tax hikes from de Blasio. De Blasio said he intended to put “a lot of pressure” on his counterpart in Albany.

“I talk to more and more New Yorkers who understand that the Governor and the State control the MTA,” he said. “They want accountability. They want change. This is a way to bring new resources in.”

The parallel plans come as de Blasio and Cuomo have frequently fought publicly about who carries the can for the subway crisis. While the state government controls the budget for the MTA, Cuomo’s office has repeatedly called on de Blasio to do more to help solve the crisis.

Cuomo pledged $1 billion in further funding and declared a state of emergency for the MTA in June.

Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY.