Oct
26
Paterson: Schools to be reimbursed for MTA tax
ByWhen the state legislature passed the MTA bailout this spring, numerous organizations cried foul over the 0.33 percent payroll tax. Schools and non-profits led the charge, but small businesses weren’t silent either. Earlier this year, Gov. David Paterson announced that, despite a $3 billion budget gap, New York State would reimburse schools for the payroll tax, but last year, he put a scare into education officials when he said the state would not be able to deliver all promised funds to schools this year. This week, after Republican representatives cried foul, Paterson reiterated his stance that schools will be reimbursed. Opposition remains to the payroll tax, however, and the state would be wise to look into congestion pricing or East River Bridge tools as a more viable and equitable solution to the MTA’s fiscal woes.
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Looking into Medicare fraud and other sources of waste and abuse would’t hurt, either.
No, income/payroll taxes are the most equitable way of funding things, because they alone are progressive, or at least flat. Tolls are regressive: the rich pay more of them than the middle class, but they pay less of them in proportion to their income.
The reason to toll the bridges isn’t to raise money; it’s to reduce traffic. Extra revenue is an ancillary benefit.