Update on the Downtown Tax

It's becoming more and more of a reality:

"ALBANY - Mayor Bloomberg got skeptical lawmakers yesterday to give his controversial congestion pricing plan a fair hearing before they close out the legislative session in five weeks.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno said the plan to reduce traffic in Manhattan by charging motorists an $8 fee has "a lot of merit."


"This is not a commuter tax, not in any way," Bruno said. "The devil is always in the details in a plan like this, as comprehensive as this. But if it benefits the city, and benefits the state, that means increased everything."
And Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he would hold hearings on Bloomberg's initiative.

"He made a nice presentation, and I think we have to hold public hearings on it," Silver (D-Manhattan) told the Daily News. "This is landmark legislation and I think we need an open and public forum to consider all the things that are happening.""

The more I look at it the more I like it, more so because the arguments against it are so weak:

""The limousines who pick up the corporate lawyers making $400 an hour will just write that off to their clients, but the parent who wants to ride their kid to the matinee of 'The Lion King,' it will be a disincentive for them," said Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell (D-Morningside Heights)."

Um...yeah. First off, if someone did want to drive their kid to see "The Lion King" on 42nd street, they could forget about finding parking, and the price they'd pay to put it in a lot would be three or four times the price of the proposed tax. Furthermore they'd probably be late for the performance dealing with traffic. If I'm going to be persuaded to another side of this debate it's going to take better arguments than this.