ALBANY — Now and again, somebody in Albany will float instituting a commuter tax, which is a terrible idea. The city needs more commuters and visitors, not fewer, and it shouldn't do anything that might dissuade them.
But what if the tax was more or less voluntary? What if the city only dinged commuters who chose to speed around schools?
That tax is in place, sort of.
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As you may have guessed, this is about the city's new school-zone cameras, which are issuing tickets at a select and growing number of locations around the city. Since the program went into effect Oct. 7, the city has issued about 38,000 tickets. And so far, 72 percent of those fined live outside the city.
A commuter tax!
Of course, nobody is describing the program that way. It's an effort aimed at the dunderheads who insist on spending around schools, no matter where they live. And, sure, it's about raising money: Mayor Kathy Sheehan's budget includes $6.4 million from the school-zone cameras, which, if you do the math, works out to roughly 375,000 tickets.
That seems wildly optimistic from a revenue perspective — or grimly........