By some estimates online orders result in the delivery of 1.8 million packages in the five boroughs on an average day.

A Brooklyn state Assemblyman sees the deliveries as a lucrative funding stream for subways and buses in a time of crisis. He's proposing a $3 surcharge on each delivery, excluding medicines and food.

What You Need To Know

  • Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen endorses bill to add $3 surcharge to online deliveries

  • The proposed surcharge would exempt food and medicine

  • It is one of several ideas being proposed to keep the MTA from massive service cuts, if it fails to get a federal bailout

"This fee will save the MTA, it'll make our air cleaner, streets less congested and it'll be a shot in the arm of small businesses that desperately need help," Assemblyman Robert Carroll, a Democrat, said.

Assemblyman Carroll first floated the idea last year, but now he's enlisted a powerful ally - John Samuelsen, the president of the Transport Workers Union.

Together, they pushed the online tax in an opinion piece in the Daily News, writing it would raise $1 billion a year.

It would be the second fee on internet purchases, after the introduction of a state sales tax on online orders, to fund mass transit.

The MTA is threatening deep service cuts and layoffs, unless it gets $12 billion in federal aid.

But a bailout of that size is unlikely, and so big new ideas are required to address the MTA's shortfall.

Samuelsen fiercely opposes any labor givebacks that could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Instead, he's called for new taxes - on gas, Wall Street stock transfers and now, online deliveries.

"It's an investment in the New York City transit system, which is a necessity of working life in New York," Samuelsen said. "The workers are not bailing this situation out. We've already put ourselves on the line and paid in blood."

The proposal immediately drew high-profile opposition.

Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:

"Maybe instead of taxing people who need baby formula and essential goods, we tax those who have profited billions from a global pandemic?"

Carroll says it is just one of several new taxes he'd support.

"We need to tax high-income earners, we should tax gasoline, we should tax ultra-luxury second homes. We also need federal relief and we need to also do things like my non-essential online delivery surcharge," Carroll said.

The MTA is focused on securing a federal bailout, but a spokesman said officials welcome "creative solutions and any new revenue."