Taxes for More Taxes

After the Bridge to Nowhere, few government spending programs should come as a surprise. Yet this one still pulls it off. From the AP via Yahoo! News:

The federal government has agreed to pay $354 million to New York City to help it launch an ambitious plan to reduce traffic by charging tolls for driving into the busiest parts of Manhattan.

…

[NYC Mayor Michael] Bloomberg’s plan would charge cars $8 and trucks $21 to enter Manhattan south of 86th Street on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

So, for those of you keeping score, those are federal tax dollars being used to fund the implementation of a new state/local tax. That doesn’t quite sound like what the founders had envisioned American federalism to become.

Worse yet, these funds are seen as a boost to the Bloomberg plan, which has faced significant opposition from New Yorkers who already feel grossly over-taxed. Go figure. New York’s state and local tax burden is the 3rd highest in the nation.

It’s not everyday that you see this tax-for-a-tax spending. Except, of course, for the $11.1 billion in taxpayer money that the IRS spends per year to collect even more taxpayer money.