Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Velghast t1_j77crqg wrote

Reply to comment by DfcukinLite in MARC train is free today by [deleted]

I support everything being free but wouldn't it be awesome if public transportation was free in general considering our taxpayer money basically goes to fund the thing. Imagine if we just asked under armor to pay 1% more in taxes so we didn't have to pay the f****** toll every time we want to go across the key bridge.

29

DfcukinLite t1_j77dllf wrote

Imagine if under armor paid taxes at all. They don’t now because the city gave Kevin Plank a tax break to build the headquarters and the year his break ends they’re moving the headquarters to port Covington to their new tax break TIF. Imagine that .

But I fully agree with you. Many cities are moving to free public transportation. I think Baltimore should look into it as well

22

NewYork_NewJersey440 t1_j77ttsp wrote

Tax breaks like this drive me insane. I would love to see a good study on how often these work out for the municipality, because my gut feeling is less than half the time. For the company they are awesome because I can just go shopping to see who gives me the best deal.

Free public transportation could result in more people being able to work, or spend money at business, or drive less miles, all of which would have societal benefits…but nah, we can’t have that. Not to mention, the cost of collecting the fares goes away and the transit agencies can focus more on service.

7

DfcukinLite t1_j78y7t0 wrote

I’d love to see the data as well. That would be great investigative journalism from the sun or banner. They aren’t the only ones it’s prolific. But employers could be incentivized to offer employee transportation benefits in the city. Baltimore could give tax breaks to companies that promote ride sharing/carpooling and public transportation .

1