NYC Toys With Package Delivery Fee to Offset Costs of Failing Public Transit
Nothing like government passing the cost of their poor decisions down to the citizen.
New York City residents may be strapped with an additional $3 delivery surcharge for any package not containing food or medicine.
The proposal would funnel the delivery fees to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority which is facing a massive budget shortfall (maybe because they keep shutting the city down?).
From New York local news:
With the Metropolitan Transportation Authority facing a budget crisis, New Yorkers may have to dig into their pockets to help out.
Under a new proposed bill, New York City residents would be required to pay a $3 surcharge on packages they ordered online, with the exception for medicine and food.
Assemblyman Robert Carroll, who proposed the bill, says the online shopping fee would raise more than $1 billion a year “to fund the operating costs of buses and subways in the city of New York.”
In a joint Daily News op-ed with John Samuelsen, the International President of the Transport Workers Union, Carroll (D-Brooklyn) said the MTA cannot rely solely on a federal bailout.
They argued that the surcharge would incentivize New Yorkers to support small local businesses instead of buying from corporations like Amazon or Walmart.
“A delivery surcharge will also undoubtedly encourage consumers, and the Amazons of the world, to more regularly consolidate multiple items into a single package for delivery,” they wrote.
Maybe stop destroying the local economy?
Nothing like government passing the cost of their poor decisions down to the citizen.
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Comments
Death and taxes…
Let me get this straight, DeBlowsio, you’ve shut down local businesses, and now you’re going to consider a surcharge on the subjects in NYC for purchasing items via Amazon/Walmart as a consequence of the subjects’ failure to purchase from a shutdown, local business.
Yep, by golly gum, that’ll teach your subjects
This surcharge will also impact that closed gift shop or ‘non-essential’ store that can only admit 2 customers.
So if the LOCAL STORE sends you your package via UPS, the small business suffers more.
Local permanent (far left) politicians only know how to hurt their voters and kill their businesses. The New Yorkers got the government they deserve.
Or maybe they got the government that Dominion gave them…
Leftilibrals ask the impossible and tax you for not doing it.
It says food orders would be excluded. Retailers could offer a bag of a couple of nuts or pieces candy for 25 cents to any order which would save their customers the $3.
That was my first thought.
Where have I seen this dance before? Oh yeah:
“There’s an anergy shortage, so adjust your thermostats and cut down on energy use.”
“Our utility isn’t meeting its revenue requirements, so we have to raise our rates.”
See also: Gasoline Taxes
Or gas taxes to support the roads in a town that encourages electric cars and bicycles. Unintended consequences are proof that most liberals are really stupid.
Hi Henry.
I recall California water utility trying that during a drought: The citizens were so good at cutting back water usage that the water utility applied for a rate increase. I *think* Ahnold (Arnold Schwarzeneger) was governor at the time ant it did not pass.
So how do I support local business if I can’t leave home?
Who’s stopping you?
“for any package not containing food or medicine”
Make sure you always include a Hersey Bar purchase with your order.
You beat me by 17 minutes. :-{)}}}
Beat me to it!
Why be extravagant?
I’m sure the Bezopoly will offer to include 1 grain of rice in each package for a mere $0.50 extra charge. ($0.25 for Bezopoly Prime members.)
Does a municipality have jurisdiction to impose such a tax?
(BTW I like the “Fscam solution”)
Blaise,
I don’t know what the general rule is but for NYC the pattern has been that the *state* legislature (both houses?) must rubber-stamp any new tax the city wants to impose. But with both the state assembly and state senate in the hand of democrats – worse yet, liberals & leftists – such bovine manure will likely pass.
What the unintended consequences will be, well, that awaits to be seen. But an easy prediction: It ain’t gonna be nice.
The City of Chicago is considering this type of fee (either $1.25 or $2.50 based on weight.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-chicago-lori-lightfoot-restaurant-delivery-fees-budget-20201123-xxrmoqtiujgh5oiycnlwhtk74u-story.html
The tax, if enacted, will produce far less than the amount claimed.
Unexpectedly…
Of course. Like all Democrat cash grabs, they always assume no change in behavior due to the new tax or fee.
Amazon should announce that any packages headed into New York can be eaten in an emergency, and therefore are immune to the charge.
Or, that every package headed there, they will automatically toss in ONE starlight peppermint. Diabetics can check a box for sugar-free.
This sort of idiocy reminds me of when some locales said mobile phone companies couldn’t offer free phones back before smartphones. So, they started charging…. one cent.
San Francisco – where else? M tried to make it so the banks could not charge a fee to non-bank customers use of their teller machines. So, the banks responded by locking out all but their own customers at the hotel or machines. Problem solved.
^^^ … their own teller machines.
When Lord Byron was told he couldn’t bring his pet dog to his university campus, he brought a pet bear instead.
There really ARE times I wish I was like Dan Haggerty. I don’t think the bear on Grizzly Adams was his, but, he had one.
When I lived in the hell-hole (A.K.A. New York), there was no sales tax on food. Some M&Ms were “food” and exempt from tax. Some M&M weren’t “food” and were taxed. It depended on the package size.
I suppose by now they’ve redefined “food” to mean “anything consumed by a Democrat in good standing”. Everything else is subject to the tax.
In Massachusetts, a yarn store has to charge you tax on the yarn you buy to knit an afghan, but if you tell them you intend to make sweaters out of it, they can’t charge you the tax. Similarly, when you buy seeds, your flower seeds are taxable, but your vegetable seeds aren’t.
That just shows it’s discrimination against Lotus eaters.
I tried eating a Lotus once. The problem is those fenders are pretty tough, not to mention the engine.
Victoria (the Australian state) used to have arcane Sunday trading laws. Bookstores were allowed to open, but furniture stores were not. So one furniture store decided that on Sundays, when it was closed anyway, its space would be used as a bookstore. The books were insanely overpriced, but each one came with a free piece of furniture.
So the free everything for everyone comes with a fee?
Everything is “free” when the state holds all of the money. Welcome to the People’s Democratic Paradise.
What small local businesses?
It’s a NY State Assemblyman trying to get the State to impose the tax.
With an overwhelming majority in both houses, shouldn’t be hard to do. Then il Duce Cuomo will decide if he wants to sign it.
Do it! While you are at it increase the taxes on data useage for wifi, telephone, and internet services. Kill off the rest of your economy you ignorant asswipes.
Also impose a tax on all tea – all it the “king cuomo” tax.
Heck, to be fair add in all caffeinated drinks.
I might feel sympathy for New Yorkers if the didn’t vote these “reps of the people” into office time and
again. And if they don’t vote in local elections then they too have no recourse. You get the government you deserve, or the one now put in place through massive fraud. Errors of omission are just as much at fault as errors of commission,
How do I “deserve” a government put in place through massive fraud?
You assume a fair election. One party states are not known for fair elections.
Noo Yawk City controls the whole state. I wish no harm to some poor slob in rural upstate who has no voice.
Santa is NOT going to take this well. Bad enough he has to quarantine for two weeks before Xmas. Now he has to pay NYC $3 per package delivered!
The Beatles had a song years ago titled “Taxman.” The Beatles were prophets.
.
Then John went commie and wrote “Imagine.” Looks like they WERE prophets.
‘Taxman’ was personal, ‘Imagine’ wasn’t…
??? imagine there’s no taxman…
Imagine there’s no liberals…
The likes of this clown, garcetti, lightfoot, etc are in place because their soros/chicomm masters know they’ll do 2 things: destroy the American cities they lead, and drive people out to populate – and turn liberal – conservative states. And it is working. If SuperSpreader Harris becomes president, it’ll be the a fait accompli.
Our only hope for freedom is secession. We can’t share a nation with a population trying to destroy us.
Or do what I do since I refuse to wear masks in order to shop. I cross the state line and shop there, where they don’t have fascist mask mandates.
remember systemic fare evasion-According to the MTA’s estimates, the system will lose about $300 million from fare evasion this year, from both train and bus fares. But officials’ fixation on reducing this offence are misaligned, activist groups say, especially when these policies are likely to affect low-income riders and communities of color.—–https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/11/12/20959914/fare-evasion-costs-cities-millions#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20MTA’s%20estimates,riders%20and%20communities%20of%20color.
In Portland most buses are now 20,000 lb Ubers. I also wonder if more people will get sick because all of the windows are open and they are subjected to a 30MPH wind chill vs keeping them shut and the buses kept warm. Oops, there I go using common sense again.
Shouldn’t this scumbag ask his wife where the $850 million went before adding yet another tax to this miserable city/state? I can’t get the hell out of here fast enough. Let me assure this commie, I will either send any package to relatives in nearby states, which I visit often, or just not order anything until I leave this commie state. I have a funny feeling the delivery services, and stores that use them, are going to feel this more than the rest of us, and since most of them have firmly implanted themselves in the anal sacs of these whore politicians, I say “GOOD”!