The running joke is Commie-fornia. I think NY, specifically NYC is giving California a run for it's money. NY is becoming a singular example of what happens when there are no personal consequences for illegal, unconstitutional and immoral behavior by government agents.
Lets start with Latitia James who campaigned on corrupt use of her public office. She campaigned on getting Trump and has proceeded to do so. And while she is not the only agent to violate Trump's civil rights via lawfare she serves as THE example. In a properly functioning federal DOJ, James would have been plaed under investigation as soon as the charges were filed. She would have been charged with violating Trump's civil rights as in America, supposedly, crimes are investigated and suspects prosecuted rather than people targeted by the state to make up crimes to charge them with.
Consider judge Engeron. How does a judge come to the conclusion prior to the trial? That such a thing can be done in America where guilt is to be determined by a jury AFTER a trial, his behavior, and indeed the law that allows such activity ought to have gotten an express lane to SCOTUS where a unanimous vote nullifying the law AND removed the judge from office would be rendered.
Not to be outdone, another judge in NY actually said, in public and on record, that the second amendment does not exist in NY state or her court. How exactly does this judge still have a job? How is it she was not immediately removed from office and her law license revoked? How is she not currently on trial for violating the civil rights of the defendant? How is she literally not having to consider 'learning to code" for the rest of her life as her law degree is worth less than the toilet paper she wipes and flushes with?
A judge has recently ruled that NYS can tell Verizon (and I assume other providers) to charge low income residents $15 for broadband. Really? Since when do we have state agents dictating the prices businesses charge for goods and services? The state has an interest in preventing gouging. The state can, unfortunately tax a business to operate in it's jurisdiction. The state can choose to use money it collects from citizens to subsidize the cost of a good or service, but since when does it have the right to say "you must charge this"? Since when is the state a business partner of a private entity?
I'm sure there are answers to those questions but that there are illustrates how far down the socialism slope NYS has gone down.
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Lastly, I'll revisit the congestion pricing issue because that one really, reaaaaly bothers me. There are various road tolls out there. The justifications for these tolls were to pay for the construction of said bridges or roads. Then it was said that they continuation of said tolls were to maintain those roads. Personally, I think there should be no tolls whatsoever. It is generally known how much it costs to maintain x amount of road and bridges. After all, these agencies budget and forecast all the time. Implement a tax that covers that cost and everybody pays in. Yes, everyone benefits from the roads whether they drive on them or not. Mail delivery, food delivery, furniture, etc. all travel on various roads many citizens may never ever see in their lives. Chip in.
The point here is that, if there was and is to be a toll, it was paid for by the people who were using the service. I use the bridge, I pay the tax. Fine (this is not a piece advocating taxes). I hate when road tolls are increased but at least I know I'm paying for the good and service.
NYC congestion pricing completely abandons this principle. Drivers are not being asked to pay a toll in order to maintain or even pay for new infrastructure THEY USE. They are being asked to pay an exorbitant amount of money to pay for services and goods used by other people who DO NOT pay for the services and goods paid for by drivers.
I do not use mass transit. The times that I have used mass transit, I have paid my fare. I use the service, I should pay for it. That is fair. If the service is being run below what it costs to maintain and upgrade it, then either the fare is too low or the state agency responsible for it is not properly funded.
Unlike the roads, mass transit does NOT benefit everyone. Food does not travel on the bus or subway. Nor does furniture, fuel. In general, mass transit benefits businesses that are able to have employees shuttled from various areas to and from their offices. Don't believe me? Next time you're in NYC or even outer suburbs, see how many people are on the busses during the week and then look at how many people are on the busses on the weekends.
When the state closed up shop during COVID, MTA finances fell into deep hole as ridership became simply homeless people "enjoying" the newly empty trains.
Congestion pricing is how NYC figured it could kick it's affordability problem out a few more years. It knows full well that it cannot raise fares to where they would need to be to make the MTA profitable enough to do what it needs to do, so it figured that drivers could be milked instead. The whole "pollution and congestion" angle was just to get the liberals on board. Drivers in NY already pay high fees to register their vehicles every two years. They pay gas taxes. Then IF they drive into manhattan on a weekday, they usually have to pay for parking unless they are smart enough to sleuth alternate side of the street parking and figure out where and when to get free street parking. Of course this pisses off residents.
But returning to the issue, this is the first time I can think of, where one class of NY residents will be asked to pay a tax for a service they did not use. I think that is a very dangerous trend. I think congestion pricing should have been struck down on that principle alone. Nobody would accept going to a store and being made to pay for someone other person's goods. This is exactly what is being done here.
Wait until those people traveling the Queensbridge get their bills for the 3 block drive between the bridge and the nearest highway. Wait until they drop the speed limit to 20MPH and those fines get racked up. Wait until the other tolled bridges have the tolls go up to match the cost of the congestion zone.
They'll still vote for the Democrats who did it to them.
