As a quick update to the ongoing gas tax cap / reduction debate in the New York State legislature, Gov. Pataki has yet to take a positionon the proposed bill, but thankfully today Mayor Bloomberg announced his opposition. He was quite direct in the value of the gas tax to the city. Bloomberg said the 8-cent cap would cost the city an estimated $50 million annually:

Fifty million dollars a year is probably a thousand cops, close to a thousand cops, close to a thousand teachers," he said. "If we don't have the money, we can't have these things. What do we want to do without?

Reducing taxes when you're trying to end energy dependence on foreign cartels is not exactly a terribly smart policy

The long-term solution in this country, which nobody wants to hear, is to use an awful lot less energy and to get away from fossil fuels, particularly oil, that mostly comes from overseas.

Thank you Mike! That's exactly the pragmatic, hard nosed answers that people need to hear from their elected officials. Now can we start talking about reducing the number of city parking permits and congestion pricing???