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Fields moves to repeal MTA tax
No identical legislation offered in Senate yet
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Assemblywoman Ginny Fields (D-Oakdale) has offered a bill repealing the locally despised Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll tax.
The tax, passed in May 2009 as part of the MTA bailout plan, requires all public and private employers in the 12-county MTA region to pay 34 cents on every $100 of their payroll.
Since its implementation, Suffolk's government has paid $3.3 million in MTA tax, in addition to the county's $26 million subsidy of the Long Island bus system, while Brookhaven Town paid over $244,000, according to a Tuesday release from Field's office. Suffolk residents — many of whom rarely utilize the Long Island Rail Road or city roads, buses and subways — pay this cost through a property tax on top of the payroll fees assessed on their employers.
Overall, local employers have paid an estimated $1.35 billion to the MTA but have received little in return, the assemblywoman argued. "I voted against the MTA bailout in May 2009 because I didn't believe Suffolk County residents should subsidize services they don't use and have very limited access to," stated Fields, who represents a portion of the Middle Country community.
A recent study found New York below the national average for business startups and ranked first in business failures, according to Fields. Imposing an additional tax on businesses granted these conditions and the general hardships of recession is "intolerable," stated her release. "When we should be working to create jobs, this tax is assisting in the closure of companies and is hurting small businesses that are the backbone of our economy," Fields said.
Since the bailout, the MTA has accrued a $400 million deficit while granting its employees raises and proposing reduced Long Island service, according to Fields. Last week the authority said it plans to cut train frequency between Ronkonkoma and Greenport. "It is time that the MTA resolves its inefficiencies, stops the waste, fraud and abuse by its employees and management and reduces its staff," Fields said, noting the agency has over 70,000 employees, including roughly 5,000 in administration, and "many in redundant positions."
Additionally, opponents now say the MTA payroll tax was adopted unconstitutionally. In December, the owner of two Island bus companies, Hamptons Luxury Liner and Classic Coach, sued the state seeking to overturn the tax, according to published reports.
Among a number of constitutional complaints, in order to alter tax law as it did, the Legislature required a two-thirds majority or a supporting home-rule message from local government, Fields said, neither of which was obtained when the MTA bailout was passed. "It was unconstitutional to begin with," she said.
The tax has cost Suffolk school districts collectively over $12.8 billion, according to Fields. Although passage of the MTA bailout in the Senate was conditioned on the promise of reimbursement to districts, the state's soaring deficit casts doubt on its ability to repay schools. Many state payments were delayed in December, for example, due to budget woes, although the payments were eventually made to the school districts.
The bill has been referred to the Ways and Means committee. "The legislation is currently making its way through the Assembly committee process," Sonia Lindell, spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said Tuesday. She would not say if Silver supports it. The speaker had favored the inclusion of a payroll tax into the MTA bailout plan, media reported at the time.
"I don't care" whether Silver supports a repeal, Fields said Tuesday. If the speaker and his city constituents "need the trains, then they should pay for the trains," she said; her constituents "for the most part don't use them."
Fields said she had not yet approached a senator to sponsor duplicate legislation, but would once she lined up more Assembly sponsors. "So far I'm getting a lot of people to sign on," she noted. But it's unlikely Fields will find a Long Island senator from her party to offer a bill, she added, as many supported it; as a result, Fields mentioned approaching a Long Island Republican, all of whom opposed it.
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