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MTA tax anger spurs secession movement
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Local fallout over a new MTA payroll tax has fanned the flames of the dormant Long Island secession movement.
Turning an interesting thought experiment into a regional rallying cry, Suffolk County legislators Tuesday passed 12-6 a message calling on state lawmakers to create a commission to study the feasibility of the Island separating from New York to become the 51st state. In rhetoric that, like recent tax-protesting nationwide Tea Parties, increasingly harkened back to the Revolution, lawmakers expressed indignation over the escalating "inequity" in state taxing, pointing to the $3 billion deficit between what Long Islanders send to Albany each year and get back through services and subsidies.
"Long Island needs to stand up and take whatever action is necessary to throw off these shackles and not be beholden to the tyrants in Albany," said Minority Leader Dan Losquadro (R-Shoreham).
The secession commission proposal was introduced in Albany last year by state senators Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) and Fred Thiele (R-Sag Harbor). "This sends the message to Albany that needs of Long Island need to be taken care of," Thiele said. "We can't be relied on to be the cash cow for the state or the MTA."
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority bailout package negotiated last week by state lawmakers includes a 34 cent tax on every $100 of payroll for every public and private workplace in the MTA region — the 12 counties that include Nassau and Suffolk. Payments by school districts are to be reimbursed by the state under the deal. The tax is projected to cost private sector LI businesses $149 million annually, according to economist Martin Cantor, director of Dowling College's Long Island Social and Economic Policy Institute. Overall, the MTA bailouts combination of new and raised taxes and fees will cost the region 15 percent of its gross domestic product, Cantor said, and could spur the elimination of "thousands" of jobs. The new costs "negate the effects" of the federal stimulus package's aid for Long Island, he argued.
And Islanders stand to gain far less from lower MTA rates and capital improvements than city, upstate or out-of-state residents. While around 9 million people utilize MTA transportation each day, only 134,000 riders utilize the Long Island Rail Road each week, according to Cantor. And while that fraction's fare will increase 10 percent this year due to the state bailout, 7.5 percent fare increases are slotted for each of 2011 and 2013, he added.
"In a region that is the economic engine to New York State, and suffering through a recession, this is a major, major money shift to the city from Long Island," Cantor said. "The state set a precedent for going into the deep pockets of Long Island, and that won't stop."
Residents will pay the tax numerous times, both through their job and as taxes to cover the levy on local governments' payrolls. For example, the tax, with payment retroactive to March 1, will cost Suffolk about $3.4 million this year, according to county Comptroller Joe Sawicki Jr. The Island's towns will be collectively be responsible for an estimated $6 million a year, according to Cantor.
County busing is not under the auspices of the MTA. In a press conference Tuesday, a bipartisan group of legislators demanded the MTA take over the service, a move backed by County Executive Steve Levy.
There is an approximately overall $3 billion difference between the state taxes and fees Long Islanders pay each year and the state aid and services the region receives, according to a 2004 report by the Stony Brook University Center for Regional Policy Studies. "If this inequitable tax distribution was remedied," reads the county legislation sponsored by Presiding Officer Bill Lindsay (D-Holbrook), "the average Long Island family of four would realize approximately $4,000 per year in savings."
Suffolk and Nassau counties together contain close to 15 percent of New York's population and earn 17.7 percent of its personal income. Its residents pay 23 percent of the state's income tax, according to Cantor. While the Island educates 14.2 percent of the state's children, the 2009-10 state budget offers the region only 5 percent of overall education funding increase.
In a Long Island State, not only would residents' full state tax investment stay local, secession would further cut taxes due to government consolidation, according to Sawicki, who has championed the cause since his career in the Assembly in 1980s. For example, with a state legislature and governor concerned with only the Island, there would be no need for county legislators, executives or much of the county government framework, he said.
Secession ultimately "is a numbers issue that is in our favor," Sawicki said. "It would take years to happen, but it would give us the opportunity to really make a government that works and is affordable."
But some have wondered why secession is necessary to reap taxpayer savings from government consolidation, citing the possibility of combining school districts, or at least administrative functions. "There are things at home that we can do first before we [look to secede] that could reduce our costs," said Legislator DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville).
New York has seen a few localities cry for secession, such as the Island's eastern towns' suggestion of leaving Suffolk to create a Peconic County, according to Stony Brook University political science professor emeritus Howard Scarrow. But the notion never seems to make it from rhetoric to action, he said. "The final implications are always ...'Well, that is a bad idea,'" said Scarrow.
Chances of success are grim, Cantor and Sawicki acknowledge. "Albany is going to fight this, because this is a big pot of money," Cantor said. "There not going to let us go quietly, and that's a 100 percent certainty."
Even if secession goes nowhere, proponents hope the outcry will spur Albany to rectify the taxing inequity. "It's $3 billion worth fighting for," Sawicki said.
In order for the state to vote on the plan, both Nassau and Suffolk county legislatures must adopt messages in support, according to Thiele. Nassau lawmakers have not moved on the proposal "as of yet," Thiele said, "but we've still got some time to go in this legislative session."
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