il ragno
10-14-2007, 08:50 AM
It may "only" be NY, horror-capital of the quick-dissolving Western World, but pay close attention. I've previously ranted and raved that the government masks actual crime statistics by tweaking the methodology by which crimes are reported, classified and catalogued...resulting in an America no safer than it was 20 years ago and often far worse, but one in which scumbag politicians gain a comfy teflon-coating by pointing to "plunging" crime rates, and bowing theatrically before anyone's even begun applauding.
Now drops the other shoe - the same cocksuckers who pat themselves on the back for "holding the line" on taxes - or even "cutting" them! - are running the same sort of cancerous fast shuffle on you.
A while back on the Phora, I kicked off a rant on Inflation. You may notice it no longer officially exists, and hasn't since the 70s - when politicians rightly, routinely walked the plank for combatting the problem with impotent half-measures. And so, in the name of jettisoning their accountability, the concept of Inflation - the term itself - got Jimmy Hoffa'ed. Thus, nowadays, if everything costs more than it did fifteen minutes ago, and you can't keep up even a moderate, non-extravagant lifestyle because of it, the official response is to feign hearing loss, while pointing to our miracle-worker politicians who manage to somehow hold back the Tax Dragon like so many St Georges, while simultaneously waving in as many illegals past the state line as possible and directing all of them to Social Services.
But how is this possible? How can the center possibly hold? Don't you worry, comes the answer: it's the Miracle Of Democracy In Action! And anyone who scoffs is probably a Hater who's busy knotting a noose.
I - I don't get it, says a befuddled Joe Sixpack, wondering if maybe he's the one who's had it wrong all along - maybe two and two does equal five now. Or three. Or twenty-eight.
Uh....no. It still adds up to four, just like it always has. Eyes south, please.
And if this is now everyday reality as we now know it here in Jew York City, trust me: you're next. If you aren't already there, one serious illness or home-repair emergency - or childbirth - away from the poorhouse.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/10/13/2007-10-13_city_state_hike_fees_for_everything_but_.html
City, state hike fees for everything but breathing
BY DOUG FEIDEN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, October 13th 2007, 9:36 PM
Volleyball Permit: $10 (was $5)
Admission to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens: $8 (was $5)
Parking at Shea Stadium: $14 (has increased by $1 every year for the last three)
From the cradle to the altar to the grave, New Yorkers are getting their pockets picked by thousands of sky-high fees, punishing fines and secret surcharges.
Over the past four years, City Hall has made it more costly to park, swim, marry, work out, play a round of golf, view a Picasso, visit a zoo, play roller hockey or own a washing machine.
Not to be outdone, Albany has hiked the price of driving a car, registering a boat, filing a lawsuit, catching a fish, trapping a muskrat, pitching a tent and recording a birth.
Admissions, user permits, nuisance charges and summonses for violations - dubbed the "fees that ate New York" by budget watchdogs - are raking in billions of dollars and shattering revenue records for the city and state, a Daily News review found.
Enjoy a stroll in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden? Once a bargain destination, the price went to $8, up from $5, on March 1.
Parking at Yankee or Shea Stadiums? The cost was $14 this season, up from $13 in 2006, $12 in 2005 and $10 in 2004.
Bedazzled by the orchid show at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx? A ticket hit $18, one of the stiffest admissions outside Manhattan, up from $15 in 2005.
Hoping to bag a wild turkey? Hand over $5, up from $2, for a state permit. Braving the Department of Motor Vehicles? Expect a bill up to 500% higher than it was two years ago.
"Sticker shock!" cried Jimmy Lynch, an out-of-work Harlem roofer as he shelled out $15 for license plates, up from $5.50, at the state DMV office on E. 125th St.
"Ouch," echoed his son, Jimmy Jr., a Bronx carpenter who parted with $50 for an ownership title certificate for his new car, up from $10. "Who can afford these prices?"
Politicians may boast that they're not raising taxes. But by jacking up old fees and inventing new ones, they're doing almost the same thing - putting the bite on taxpayers and making everyday life more pricey.
Want a ballfield permit for a city park? Pay the Parks Department $16, up from $8. A volleyball permit? Cough up $10, up from $5 after Mayor Bloomberg hiked dozens of user fees.
Need a copy of a birth or death certificate? Fork over $30 to the state Health Department, up from $15 after former Gov. George Pataki doubled the "vital records surcharge."
Who pays the freight? Everybody: When Bloomberg was sworn in last year for a second term, his "oath of office fee" hit $9, up from 15 cents for his first inauguration.
When disgraced ex-Controller Alan Hevesi was sentenced on Feb. 9 for stealing public funds, he was ordered to pay the state DNA databank fund $50, a new charge for nonviolent felons.
And as fees climb, fines surge: The city wrote some 11 million tickets, summonses and violations last year, up from 9.2 million in 2002, and pulled down $718 million in fine revenue, up from $479 million, budget records show.
Leading the onslaught were traffic agents who handed out 9.6 million parking tickets in 2006, up from 8.4 million in 2002, and raked in $552 million.
New tires? Wash clothes? Go camping? Pay up
Yes, the government must also stay afloat fiscally. But it often does so on the backs of its citizens. For example:
The Washing Machine Fee. The average annual income of some 430,000 people living in city housing projects is only $19,000. But that didn't deter the Housing Authority from imposing painful levies on its tenants last year.
Operating a washing machine in a housing project used to be free. No longer. Residents are now paying $4.60 to $5.75 a month for a "water usage fee."
Annual parking fees, now $60 to $75, skyrocketed from $5, while the "electricity rate for dishwasher operations" rose to $5 a month from $3.
The Housing Authority, which discounts some of the increases, argues it's been battered by Bush administration cutbacks in federal funding and needed to recoup some costs to preserve public housing.
The Automobile Tax. The annual budget of the Department of Motor Vehicles is $275 million. But it takes in $900 million in motor vehicle fee revenues, up from $640 million just two years ago, because of a spate of heavy fee hikes.
"If they were just pure user fees, they'd only collect $275 million, which is the cost of running the department," said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. "But they're collecting $900 million, and basically saying, 'You either pay up or you cannot operate a car in the State of New York.' That's not a fee, it's a form of taxation."
And those quasi-taxes have doubled in the past two years. Want to register an all-terrain vehicle? Pay $25, up from $10. A boat? That'll be $60, up from $30. A snowmobile? If you're not a member of a snowmobile club, the cost is $100 per sled, up from $45.
The Waste Tire Management Fee. A $2.50 surcharge for every new tire purchased was added in 2005 by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, supposedly to fund the cleanup of waste tire stockpiles.
Got a flat? Pay an extra $2.50 for the replacement. Buying a new car? Kick in $12.50 more to cover the four new tires and a spare.
"It's sneaky accounting," said Robert Sinclair, a manager at the American Automobile Association of New York. "Only a portion of the money goes to scrap tire disposal; the rest goes into the general fund. So they're digging into motorists' pockets to make up for budget shortfalls caused by the fiscal mismanagement of the Legislature."
Now drops the other shoe - the same cocksuckers who pat themselves on the back for "holding the line" on taxes - or even "cutting" them! - are running the same sort of cancerous fast shuffle on you.
A while back on the Phora, I kicked off a rant on Inflation. You may notice it no longer officially exists, and hasn't since the 70s - when politicians rightly, routinely walked the plank for combatting the problem with impotent half-measures. And so, in the name of jettisoning their accountability, the concept of Inflation - the term itself - got Jimmy Hoffa'ed. Thus, nowadays, if everything costs more than it did fifteen minutes ago, and you can't keep up even a moderate, non-extravagant lifestyle because of it, the official response is to feign hearing loss, while pointing to our miracle-worker politicians who manage to somehow hold back the Tax Dragon like so many St Georges, while simultaneously waving in as many illegals past the state line as possible and directing all of them to Social Services.
But how is this possible? How can the center possibly hold? Don't you worry, comes the answer: it's the Miracle Of Democracy In Action! And anyone who scoffs is probably a Hater who's busy knotting a noose.
I - I don't get it, says a befuddled Joe Sixpack, wondering if maybe he's the one who's had it wrong all along - maybe two and two does equal five now. Or three. Or twenty-eight.
Uh....no. It still adds up to four, just like it always has. Eyes south, please.
And if this is now everyday reality as we now know it here in Jew York City, trust me: you're next. If you aren't already there, one serious illness or home-repair emergency - or childbirth - away from the poorhouse.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/10/13/2007-10-13_city_state_hike_fees_for_everything_but_.html
City, state hike fees for everything but breathing
BY DOUG FEIDEN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, October 13th 2007, 9:36 PM
Volleyball Permit: $10 (was $5)
Admission to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens: $8 (was $5)
Parking at Shea Stadium: $14 (has increased by $1 every year for the last three)
From the cradle to the altar to the grave, New Yorkers are getting their pockets picked by thousands of sky-high fees, punishing fines and secret surcharges.
Over the past four years, City Hall has made it more costly to park, swim, marry, work out, play a round of golf, view a Picasso, visit a zoo, play roller hockey or own a washing machine.
Not to be outdone, Albany has hiked the price of driving a car, registering a boat, filing a lawsuit, catching a fish, trapping a muskrat, pitching a tent and recording a birth.
Admissions, user permits, nuisance charges and summonses for violations - dubbed the "fees that ate New York" by budget watchdogs - are raking in billions of dollars and shattering revenue records for the city and state, a Daily News review found.
Enjoy a stroll in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden? Once a bargain destination, the price went to $8, up from $5, on March 1.
Parking at Yankee or Shea Stadiums? The cost was $14 this season, up from $13 in 2006, $12 in 2005 and $10 in 2004.
Bedazzled by the orchid show at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx? A ticket hit $18, one of the stiffest admissions outside Manhattan, up from $15 in 2005.
Hoping to bag a wild turkey? Hand over $5, up from $2, for a state permit. Braving the Department of Motor Vehicles? Expect a bill up to 500% higher than it was two years ago.
"Sticker shock!" cried Jimmy Lynch, an out-of-work Harlem roofer as he shelled out $15 for license plates, up from $5.50, at the state DMV office on E. 125th St.
"Ouch," echoed his son, Jimmy Jr., a Bronx carpenter who parted with $50 for an ownership title certificate for his new car, up from $10. "Who can afford these prices?"
Politicians may boast that they're not raising taxes. But by jacking up old fees and inventing new ones, they're doing almost the same thing - putting the bite on taxpayers and making everyday life more pricey.
Want a ballfield permit for a city park? Pay the Parks Department $16, up from $8. A volleyball permit? Cough up $10, up from $5 after Mayor Bloomberg hiked dozens of user fees.
Need a copy of a birth or death certificate? Fork over $30 to the state Health Department, up from $15 after former Gov. George Pataki doubled the "vital records surcharge."
Who pays the freight? Everybody: When Bloomberg was sworn in last year for a second term, his "oath of office fee" hit $9, up from 15 cents for his first inauguration.
When disgraced ex-Controller Alan Hevesi was sentenced on Feb. 9 for stealing public funds, he was ordered to pay the state DNA databank fund $50, a new charge for nonviolent felons.
And as fees climb, fines surge: The city wrote some 11 million tickets, summonses and violations last year, up from 9.2 million in 2002, and pulled down $718 million in fine revenue, up from $479 million, budget records show.
Leading the onslaught were traffic agents who handed out 9.6 million parking tickets in 2006, up from 8.4 million in 2002, and raked in $552 million.
New tires? Wash clothes? Go camping? Pay up
Yes, the government must also stay afloat fiscally. But it often does so on the backs of its citizens. For example:
The Washing Machine Fee. The average annual income of some 430,000 people living in city housing projects is only $19,000. But that didn't deter the Housing Authority from imposing painful levies on its tenants last year.
Operating a washing machine in a housing project used to be free. No longer. Residents are now paying $4.60 to $5.75 a month for a "water usage fee."
Annual parking fees, now $60 to $75, skyrocketed from $5, while the "electricity rate for dishwasher operations" rose to $5 a month from $3.
The Housing Authority, which discounts some of the increases, argues it's been battered by Bush administration cutbacks in federal funding and needed to recoup some costs to preserve public housing.
The Automobile Tax. The annual budget of the Department of Motor Vehicles is $275 million. But it takes in $900 million in motor vehicle fee revenues, up from $640 million just two years ago, because of a spate of heavy fee hikes.
"If they were just pure user fees, they'd only collect $275 million, which is the cost of running the department," said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. "But they're collecting $900 million, and basically saying, 'You either pay up or you cannot operate a car in the State of New York.' That's not a fee, it's a form of taxation."
And those quasi-taxes have doubled in the past two years. Want to register an all-terrain vehicle? Pay $25, up from $10. A boat? That'll be $60, up from $30. A snowmobile? If you're not a member of a snowmobile club, the cost is $100 per sled, up from $45.
The Waste Tire Management Fee. A $2.50 surcharge for every new tire purchased was added in 2005 by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, supposedly to fund the cleanup of waste tire stockpiles.
Got a flat? Pay an extra $2.50 for the replacement. Buying a new car? Kick in $12.50 more to cover the four new tires and a spare.
"It's sneaky accounting," said Robert Sinclair, a manager at the American Automobile Association of New York. "Only a portion of the money goes to scrap tire disposal; the rest goes into the general fund. So they're digging into motorists' pockets to make up for budget shortfalls caused by the fiscal mismanagement of the Legislature."