The MTA’s budget could be back on track if Albany adopts a new tax proposal drawn up late Monday by Governor Paterson.
The plan would cut payroll taxes in suburban counties — and shift the burden of closing the MTA’s budget gap to New York City businesses.
“The new proposal I am putting forward will provide relief to straphangers, as the MTA makes the difficult decisions necessary to balance its budget during an historic fiscal crisis that is significantly impacting all levels of government,” Governor Paterson said. “In addition, it also makes key improvements to the current tax structure, promoting regional equity and delivering relief to small businesses.”
If the new tax is approved and actually generates the revenue Albany claims it will one might think that drastic additional service cuts might not be necessary.
But the MTA said that the governor’s budget boost is just a drop in the bucket.
“The MTA is grateful to Governor Paterson for his continued focus on funding the MTA and the critical service we provide to 8.5 million New Yorkers every day,” said agency spokesman Jeremy Soffin. But, he added, “It would not eliminate the need for the service cuts and administrative reductions included in the MTA Budget passed in December.”
Mayor Bloomberg, of course, wsn’t happy with the plan.
“First the Governor proposed a state budget that slashes support for New York City but not the suburbs, and now he proposes to wallop city businesses with more taxes while lightening the load for businesses in the suburbs,” the mayor said in a statement. “The idea that the State can spare the suburbs while sacking the City is terrible economics, grossly unfair, and contrary to every principle of good regional development.”
(Source: NBC New York)
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4 Responses
Well, let’s try to look at this from a balanced perspective. On one side you have a successful businessman with a long history of knowing how the economy works. On the other side you have a bumbling failure who can’t even keep his own staff from quitting, and who moves from scandal to scandal faster than a soap opera.
Who do you think has the better economic plan?
If they privatize the MTA, then this discussion would not be taking place. But, they would lose out on all of those possibilities of patronage politics and none of our politicians would want that to happen, right?
those of us who remember the early seventy’s mite want to bring back this topic. we in N.Y.C. should secede from New York State and become the fifty first state . we all know that us people in N.Y.C. carry the rest of the state on our shoulders . we get taxed here in the city and the money gets spent upstate .
No yosse, we should not secede from the rest of the State. We should start studying other municipalities such as Oklahoma and Texas and see how low taxes, minimum regulation, strong law enforcement, and a strong private sector only helps the citizens. In New York especially New York City, there has always been a long history of a strong public sector to the detriment of everyone else.
That is why I always say to privatize the MTA and the healthcare system and start to wean people off of the Great Society programs and the New Deal, and to give vouchers to parents of all school age children of all incomes. That way the money will be better spent.
But, as long as our politicians will always buckle under the bullying tactics of the municipal unions, we will still be taxed to death.