Is a Gas Tax Holiday on the Agenda in Albany?

Gasoline costs have been on lots of people’s minds in the previous few weeks — even those that don’t drive have watched the figures on service station indicators climb within the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine. In the present day we’ll have a look at the prospects for a fuel tax vacation in New York and at a quick however intense push in New Jersey to let drivers pump their very own gas at fuel stations.

And whereas my colleague Grace Ashford says that everybody desires to share in a feel-good tax reduce, some fear that gas firms may increase the bottom worth for a gallon of fuel, fattening their backside strains. There may be additionally concern that the fiscal penalties of dropping the fuel tax — which brings in about $2.2 billion a 12 months in mixed state and native income — may undercut different priorities, together with roads, bridges and mass transit.

“Most economists suppose it’s a nasty concept,” mentioned Jason Furman, a professor of economics at Harvard, including that the talk was much less about whether or not a tax vacation was dangerous than about how dangerous it could be. “Is it, you already know, a horrible factor you must by no means do? Or is it a minor dangerous factor, and why not simply go forward and do it as a result of it’s good politics?”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat from Buffalo, didn’t embody a fuel tax suspension in her govt funds plan. However she indicated final week that she was open to together with one within the state funds, which is due Friday.

A Siena ballot launched on Monday confirmed that 70 % of voters throughout social gathering strains had been in favor of some kind of tax aid. Democrats, notably these from upstate and Lengthy Island, the place Republicans have made vital inroads, have taken word with a watch to this 12 months’s election.

No full-service fuel in New Jersey? No method.

New Jersey is the one state within the nation that requires attendants to pump fuel for each buyer, a service {that a} majority of residents have repeatedly instructed pollsters they help. The idiosyncrasy is commonly worn as a badge of honor on T-shirts and bumper stickers that say “Jersey Women Don’t Pump Gasoline.”

Earlier this month, proponents of self-service fuel reintroduced a invoice that will allow self-service fuel. The hassle was backed by a fuel station trade group. Proponents mentioned it was a problem of driver selection in a world the place most main drug and grocery shops supply self-service checkouts.

However Nicholas Scutari, the Democratic president of the State Senate, put an finish to hypothesis earlier this month when he mentioned he didn’t help altering issues. “The individuals of New Jersey are very clear in wanting to maintain the system we now have now,” Scutari mentioned in a coverage place first reported by the New Jersey Monitor. Scutari, whose help could be important to revamping the way in which New Jerseyans have gotten their fuel since 1949, additionally mentioned he was not satisfied that having self-service lanes would result in decrease fuel costs.

Climate

Count on an opportunity of sunshine rain within the morning and an opportunity of showers within the later afternoon, with temps within the excessive 60s. At night time, temps will drop to the low 50s. Put together for showers and thunderstorms.

alternate-side parking

In impact till April 14 (Holy Thursday).

The newest New York information

A wave of overdue books and DVDs got here crashing in after New York Metropolis’s three public library methods did away with overdue fines final 12 months. A number of the returned gadgets had been accompanied by apologetic notes.

“Enclosed are books I’ve borrowed and saved in my home for 28-50 years!” one reader wrote earlier than dropping of a field of books on the New York Public Library’s predominant department. “I’m 75 years previous now and these books have helped me by means of motherhood and my instructing profession. I’m sorry for dwelling with these books so lengthy. They grew to become household.”

When somebody checked out a replica of the novella “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” in July 1970, the Flushing Library in Queens occupied a chunky constructing at Primary Avenue and Kissena Boulevard. When the e book was returned in December, it got here again to a curving metal-and-glass construction that was accomplished in 1998 on the identical triangular website.

And what was it about “The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day,” a 2009 motion movie that has a 23 % ranking on Rotten Tomatoes? Three DVD copies got here again to 3 totally different libraries in three totally different boroughs.

The libraries’ determination to drop fines utterly adopted the lead of libraries in Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and San Francisco, amongst different locations. The New York methods collected between $3 million and $4 million in fines within the 2019 fiscal 12 months, the final earlier than the coronavirus pandemic, and stopped gathering them in March 2020.

“We realized that we may regulate our funds to do all the pieces we wanted to do and canopy the misplaced income,” Anthony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library, instructed our author Gina Cherelus. He mentioned that libraries are “not within the revenue-generating enterprise. We’re within the encouraging-to-read-and-learn enterprise, and we had been getting in our personal method” by gathering fines.

These fines had accrued for years. “I can’t inform you how stressed these fines made our clients,” mentioned Tienya Smith, a librarian who runs the department in Lengthy Island Metropolis, Queens.

Greater than 21,000 overdue or misplaced gadgets have been returned in Manhattan, some so previous that they had been not within the library’s system. About 51,000 gadgets had been returned in Brooklyn by means of the tip of February. And greater than 16,000 had been returned in Queens. (The libraries nonetheless cost substitute charges for misplaced books.) Fortunately for the libraries, the announcement that fines had been being eradicated introduced in additional than books and DVDs. One lady despatched the Queens Public Library a $1,000 donation on behalf of her 93-year-old mom.

Billy Parrott, who runs the Stavros Niarchos Basis Library in Midtown, the town’s largest circulating department, mentioned that almost all overdue gadgets had been returned by mail or e book drop, reasonably than in particular person. This is sensible: Late books could be a supply of disgrace. However librarians insist they aren’t judging.

“We simply care concerning the books,” mentioned Parrott.

What we’re studying

METROPOLITAN diary

Nook cupboard

Expensive Diary:

I dwell in Astoria. At some point, whereas I used to be out strolling and speaking on the cellphone with my mother, I noticed a porter put a ravishing nook cupboard subsequent to a pile of trash exterior the church a couple of doorways down from my constructing.

It was a top quality piece that I knew would look nice in my house, so I ran house to seize a measuring tape after which returned to see whether or not it was the suitable measurement.

As I used to be measuring, I heard a mild voice from behind me.

“Will it match?”

I circled to see a younger man standing there.

I mentioned goodbye to my mother and turned again to the younger man.

“I feel so,” I mentioned.

“I’ll carry it for you, in case you’d like,” he mentioned.

How may I refuse?

With out saying a phrase, he lifted the cupboard up simply and hoisted it over his shoulder. We set off down the road after which up the steps once we obtained to my constructing.

As soon as we had gotten inside and the cupboard was in place, I wasn’t positive how one can thank him.

He observed my piano.

“Will you play me a track?”

— Katie Coleman

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Ship submissions right here and learn extra Metropolitan Diary right here.