Rockland County Files Suit Against MTA Tax
The raging battle over the MTA Mobility Tax aka MTA Payroll Tax continues to heat up. When I last wrote about it on Wednesday, Republican Rockland County Legislator Edwin Day of New City suggested that his county should join the fight against the tax.
Fast forward to this past Friday where Rockland County officially filed their own suit against the MTA. However that was not the only news on this front as Republican Westchester County Legislator John Testa has urged the county to join the suit filed by Nassau County. Ken Valenti of LoHud (Lower Hudson Valley) has more:
The suburbs’ legal battle against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll tax continued to grow Friday as Rockland County filed a lawsuit to end it and a Westchester legislator proposed joining a suit filed by Nassau County.
Nassau filed its suit in late July and already has been joined by Putnam County and three Orange County towns.
“We’ve had enough here,” Westchester Legislator John Testa, R-Peekskill, said at the Cortlandt train station Friday morning, standing with Putnam County Legislature Chairman Vincent Tamagna, R-Philipstown.
Noting that Westchester has been named the highest-taxed county in the United States, Testa said, “these additional taxes (are) just too much for our residents to take. Enough is enough.”
Testa said the payroll tax of 34 cents per $100 of payroll will cost businesses, local governments, hospitals and nonprofit agencies in Westchester County $104 million this year. That includes $1.1 million paid by county government itself.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, lauded Testa’s effort in a statement calling it “a good first step for Westchester.”
Click here for the complete report.
This fight is brewing to arguably be the biggest one of the year for the much maligned transit agency. They now have multiple counties including Putnam, Nassau, & Orange suing them over the legality of this tax. Now they could possibly be adding Rockland & heavy hitting Westchester to the mix. This has the potential to get really bad for the MTA if the courts find the tax to be unconstitutional.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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