New York, NY – New York City has dropped a controversial plan to charge motorists involved in accidents for emergency response services.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the Bloomberg administration confirmed it withdraw the plan following City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s “strong case against it.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg had the authority to impose the fee without City Council approval.
Quinn argued that while the city faced economic hardships, emergency response is a “basic government function.”
The so-called crash tax would have gone into effect July 1 and generated about $1 million in revenue annually
after criticism
“The so-called crash tax would have gone into effect July 1 and generated about $1 million in revenue annually”
It was SUPPOSED to generate $1 million annually, but probably would have ended up costing way more in collection costs, especially the way our city runs. They were counting on auto insurers paying it if there was an accident. The insurance companies were not going into this willingly. The costs associated would have been astronomical. Possibly even more than the gains.
It was a ridiculous idea; I’m glad it didn’t come to fruition.
bourech hashem
It all depends how you look at it. NYC now charges for delivering water and collecting your sewage (water bills). Why isn’t that a “basic government function” as Speaker Quinn clled the “crash tax”? After all, the Crash Tax is the charge for delivering the firemen to your car crash, isn’t it?