Make online shoppers pay for subway repairs, says Brooklyn assemblymember
A Brooklyn elected official has proposed a $10-a-day licensing fee for drivers of Lyft, Uber and other ride-hailing apps and a $3 fee for each package delivery within the city from an online retailer to help pay for the $40 billion needed to fix the city’s subway system.
These two ideas, plus an end to Manhattanites’ partial exemption from the city’s garage tax, were part of a package bill that Assemblymember Robert Carroll introduced in Albany last week, according to City & State. While congestion pricing is Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s preferred way of raising the money to fix the transit system, “other dedicated revenue streams would be required for the MTA to actually put [New York City Transit President Andrew] Byford’s plan into effect,” City & State reported.
Carroll assumes that ride-hail app drivers would decrease in number by about one quarter as a result of the fee, but the assemblyman believes that will reduce traffic congestion, City & State said.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.