What Environmentalism Is Good For

Mayor Iceberg shows how environmentalism is an efficient leveraging tool to extract tax hikes while still appearing “visionary.” The method is simple — first look sexy and “green” — either with an unserious congestion pricing initiative or an equally unserious plastic bag tax — and then let the city council institute a ridiculously unsexy half-cent sales tax increase (Christine Quinn has been screwed at least twice now):

The Bloomberg administration has backed down on a plan to charge a 5-cent fee on plastic shopping bags and to add sales tax on all clothing purchases as part of a budget agreement reached with the City Council on Monday night, aides said.

To close a gap of about $1 billion in next year’s budget, Mr. Bloomberg and the Council have instead proposed increasing the city’s sales tax by half a percentage point, to 8.875 percent. In addition, the city would begin charging sales tax on clothing over $110. All clothing was previously exempt from such taxes.

A typical household in New York City making $35,000 a year would have to pay an extra $74 a year in sales taxes, clothing included, according to estimates by the city’s Independent Budget Office. A household making $125,000 would pay an additional $237 a year, and one making $500,000 would pay $687 more.