fjb wrote:
Upgrading New York City’s sewer system to “deal with regularly-occurring large rain events is estimated to cost around $100 billion,” the law notes. But climate change is merely an excuse to get others to pay for upgrading infrastructure that New York politicians have failed to maintain because they divert so much money to welfare payments and fat public-worker pay and benefits. Ms. Hochul is grasping for revenue now because GOP control of Washington will likely mean less federal largesse for states.
Since New Yorkers are taxed out, she’s looking elsewhere for money. “Taxes are high enough in the state of New York and we have to live within our means,” Ms. Hochul said last autumn. So much for that. She also recently resurrected a hefty congestion tax on drivers entering Manhattan’s business districts ($9 per passenger vehicle), which will smack New Jersey and Connecticut commuters. This is expected to raise $15 billion for the city’s declining mass-transit system.
The new Democratic climate tax end-runs a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 2021 that dismissed a New York City lawsuit seeking to hold fossil-fuel producers liable for their alleged climate impact. The court held that state tort law could not be used “to hold multinational oil companies liable for the damages caused by global greenhouse gas emissions.”
Yet that’s essentially what New York is now doing with legislation rather than litigation. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether to hear a case (Sunoco LP v. City & County of Honolulu) about whether federal law pre-empts state and local government claims against companies to redress alleged harms caused by global greenhouse gas emissions.
Hey Fvck,
NYC government is indeed not efficient. It's a corrupt mess.
But hey, now do Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Wyoming and compare and contrast living standards and incomes! Lay it on us how right-wing government in those places has resulted in much higher living standards in deep red states compared to blue government in CA, NY, NJ, CT, WA etc.
I'll wait here
