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Taxing Town
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 13, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 13, 2004
Modified Mar 6, 2008
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, you so crazy! Your proposal to raise money for New York City has something for everyone. The Times gives a sampling of some possible revenue sources (reporter Michael McIntire has a nice zinger at the end):
Impose a 10-cents per cup tax on specialty coffee drinks; reinstate fares for the Staten Island ferry; end city subsidies for private school buses and textbooks; and eliminate grass clippings from trash collection. There is also a proposal to raise $1 million by adding cafes to 125 libraries where, presumably, the new latte tax could be collected on double caramel macchiatos.
There's also a proposal to increase restaurant taxes! While much of it is for a good cause (funding our public schools and other programs), some suggestions are alarming, such as further increasing class room size. Gothamist doesn't think the IBO has thought about the consequences of these actions. People will be looking for underground plastic surgeons, performing liposuctions from 80s style offices, or, worse yet, going to New Jersey for cheaper deals. As for the "latte tax," caffeine addicts at offices will pool together their money to buy an office espresso machine (home use or commercial and create a microeconomy on the 10th floor. Luckily, these are all proposals for review, not actual proposals. Yet.
New Yorkish on the tax and Mayor Bloomberg's coffee jones.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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