And about those toll hikes (shhh! don't complain! they might track you down and give you the "Tiananmen Square Treatment" ) - guess whom gets beat up most by this liberal shakedown scam:
An analysis of E-ZPass data reviewed by Gannett Newspapers and Millennium radio shows many middle- and lower-income workers will be disproportionately hit by Corzine's planned toll increases. The analysis was conducted by Jonathan R. Peters, a finance professor who studies transportation costs at the City University of New York, Staten Island. The planned toll increases are so high that residents will make major life decisions, such as where to work, based simply on the tolls. "This may drive some people out of the workforce," Peters told my colleague Jason Method of the Asbury Park Press.
Low- and middle-income areas would see workers paying a disproportionately higher amount of their income to the toll roads, according to Peters' findings.
A governor's spokesman responded with typical Corzine gobbledygook:
"Any analysis that focuses on the toll component of the governor's initiative in isolation is one dimensional and incomplete ... The benefits of debt reduction, programmatic funding of transportation improvements statewide and ending New Jersey's chronic and structural budget problems will pay dividends for all New Jerseyans many decades in the future."
I guess we'll need the money for paying out unemployment benefits that will skyrocket by magnitudes of order. And, prey tell, where will the money come from once the traffic on the toll roads declines due to the oppressive costs?
I think I know who's gonna get hit up....time to stock up on mason jars and a good soil-digging shovel....
Incidentally, the above statement from the governor's spokeman was the stupidest thing uttered by Corzine (or one of his flacks) since he blamed the citzens of New Jersey for the Newark Massacre...
Who'd ever thought one could miss Jim McGreevy?
Another bit of fallout will be the following:
ReplyDeleteTruckers will pass the increased tolls along to their customers. Their customers will ultimately pass the increased costs along to the consumers.
The consumers will ultimately pay the higher costs, AND the state will get to collect the 7% sales tax (increased 16% over the 6% sales tax) on the higher prices for goods resulting from the toll increases.
Helluva scheme, that.
Good catch. I can almost see Corzine and his cronies yukking it up over that little bit of gravy on the side...
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