Posted by
Richard on Sunday, March 01, 2009 10:38:44 AM
By now pretty much all the US of A, have been put on notice that the tax cuts for the “working class” will amount to a whole $677.00/year¨ , or roughly a $1.86 a day. Wow, I can really stimulate the economy with that windfall now can’t I?
I did a bit of thinking as to what exactly will this extra cash in our wallets will buy us and came to the conclusion, after just a wee bit of research on everyday expenses, that, well, it’s not a whole lot of anything, when you come down to it.
Gasoline:
According to
AAA,(as of this writing), the cheapest price for a gallon of regular is $1.72 in Wyoming, while the most expensive is 2.50 in Alaska. So I did a little math work, and by adding all the prices and dividing I came out to 1.1744/gallon. Now remember that is the cheap stuff, but ok, so it might buy you one gallon of gas per day. However one must remember that the price of gas has been bouncing like a yoyo, so what it might get you today, might not get you tomorrow.
Public/Mass Transit: §
A) Taxicabs - According to the
NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission it costs 2.50 to just enter a cab and an $0.40/additional unit. A unit being described as;
The unit fare is:
one-fifth of a mile, when the taxicab is traveling at 6 miles an hour or more; or
60 seconds when not in motion or traveling at less than 12 miles per hour.
The taximeter shall combine fractional measures of distance and time in accruing a unit of fare. Any combination of distance or time shall be computed by the taximeter in accordance with the National Bureau of Standards.
The fare shall include pre-assessment of the unit currently being accrued; the amount due may therefore include a full unit charge for a final, fractional unit.
Night surcharge of $.50 after 8:00 PM & before 6:00 AM
Peak hour Weekday Surcharge of $1.00 Monday - Friday after 4:00 PM & before 8:00 PM
There are of course flat rates for airports and the likes, but it is doubtful that your stimulus tax decrease will buy you more than a courtesy look at a cabbie.
B) Subways and Buses:
The current price for a one way ride is $2.00 for a bus or subway train. Express bus service (these service areas that are not reached by the basic bus/subway lines) is $5.00 per ride. There are various discounts such as weekly, and monthly rides known as Metro Card. However while they save you a few pennies on the dollar, you’re not saving a whole lot more than the buck eighty six you’re getting each day.
C) Commuter Lines:
Since I am a former Long Islander I will use the LIRR as a sample. To be sure there are various other lines such as Metro-North, and the PATH lines not to mention Bus routes that service the long distance traveler. I will also use my own commute as an example since that is, or actually was, more familiar with on a daily basis.
When I lived in Shirley NY, I was paying around $80.00 per week for the joy of commuting to my job in Jamaica NY. (Please click on the above link, for an updated fare schedule). Now for those that didn’t work in the city, but on occasion took the LIRR for trips to the City (as we Lon Guylanders called it) one was paying about $13.00 for a ONE WAY ticket. IF you did not have the time to purchase a ticket at the ATVM or it wasn’t working, you paid a penalty fee of a couple of extra dollars. (Ah got to love those government monopolies!). So a night on the town, or a day at the ballpark, a trip to the museum had to have traveling fees factored into the bigger picture.
Either way your measly extra 13 week will barely purchase you a ride. Now to be honest the fares are based on the actual distance you live from NYC, so the closer you lived to NYC the less you paid, but even from a station called Floral Park which is just outside of the NYC border is still about half of your tax saving.
Please also make note that many commuters also had to board a subway or bus once they even made into NYC, so if you factor in the additional fare, well you get the picture.
D) Housing and Utilities:
According to a chart based on the DOE figures, the average monthly residential electric bill is 95.66. I am certain your 52 bucks will go towards that necessary item. If you scroll down the chart you see the rates are even higher (of course), for business and industrial customers.
Moving along to heating, a rather important need if you live in one of our northern states.
In an article from the Boston Globe, written August 04, 2008, a grim prediction was made for MA residents for the, then coming year of 2009, of which I quote;
“Heating costs are expected to keep rising, the report says. The state's average household oil bill next year could top $3,000, according to the report by the UMass Donahue Institute, a university think tank. All told, consumers can expect to spend $4.45 billion for gas and oil heat in 2009 - a $469 million increase from 2008.”
Now to be fair MA does indeed have a rather high Cost of Living (COLA), but this just points out that your annual $677.00 bucks aren’t going to warm your house all that much, if at all. You can wager the farm that your savings is going towards that bill as well.
Housing is a big chunk of anyone’s COLA, and it does vary a lot from cities to more rural areas, but the point here is to see how far your extra money goes, and for most areas it doesn’t buy you a lot of bang for your buck.
Sadly the most recent US Census
report I could find was based on a 2003 survey and issued in 2004, a lifetime ago all things considered. For some unexplained reason when one clicks on the link provided at that site it at firsts opens a PDF file, and then closes down the window. However I am taking the report at it’s word and well now just look at those figures, based on a five year old survey! A little past 700/month for homeowners, and just around 650 for renters. Yup that money is sure going to go far.
I suppose I could go on and on about what all of this surplus cash that each of us will have is not going to stimulate much of anything let alone the economy. In fact when questioned I would be willing to bet that those of us will just use the extra few dollars to do our daily routines.
Somehow it will stimulate government coffers, with the exception of rents and mortgages, as it seems that most of us will as I mentioned above will be paying bills that have taxes included in those bills. Or will be using it purchase daily needed items that likewise have taxes attached to them as well. WOW, being able to buy a tad bit more of what I need to survive daily really is just giving me a tingle up my leg.
BTW, a few more things (luxury items indeed), that 1.86/day won’t buy you are;
A pack of smokes
A bottle of beer
A happy meal for the kid
A morning cup of java, and a buttered roll or bagel
But, all in all, I am really stoked about getting all this extra money that I’ll be able to put to good use somewhere, someplace, sometime,,, at least one time. I hope all of you enjoy yours as well.
¨
BTW, just a little side note, I would suggest that those that haven’t already, might want to reassess their tax liability/dependent status, and claim absolutely 0, because as you know you’re now making 677.00 more per year and by NEXT year the Tax cuts put into place by President Bush will expire, thereby raising your liability and will effectively cancel out this huge sum of money.
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Writers note;
All fares about from the Mass Transit section were based on figures from the NYC MTA. I cannot answer for what other fares might be in other large cities. I can say that here in the rural area of western KY where I live now, there is virtually no mass transit to speak of per se, but there is a system in my town called PATS, which charges 0.75 for a bus ride. However they do have a limited schedule and only a handful of actual routes. Still on the plus side my $1.86/day would get me just slightly over 3 rides a day.