State Group Joins Rockland's Fight Against MTA Payroll Tax

A group representing county governments throughout New York has joined Rockland County in its legal fight to overturn a payroll tax imposed in 2010 to support the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef said Rockland is not only seeking to have the tax declared unconstitutional, but Rockland wants the MTA ordered to provide services equitably and to pay $220 million in damages.

Vanderhoef said Thursday the New York State Association of Counties has
submitted papers in support of a lawsuit filed in an Albany Court by Rockland County, which contends that legislation passed by the state Legislature in 2009 creating the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Tax was is illegal.

The Mobility Tax hits employers in the 12 counties served by the
MTA, which includes the five counties of New York City and the seven
surrounding counties of Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland,
Suffolk and Westchester. The tax was created to cover a nearly $1.9 billion MTA budget gap and provide an ongoing source of cash for the agency.

The MTA operates the Metro-North Commuter Railroad and has contracts with NJ Transit to provide commuter rail service in Rockland on the Pascack Valley Line to Pearl River, Nanuet and Spring Valley and the Bergen/Main Line, which stops in Suffern.

“The State is taking money out of the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers to pay for the management shortcomings of the MTA,” said NYSAC Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario. “This is wrong on all accounts. Wrong to the hardworking taxpayers, wrong for our local governments and wrong for every employer across this region.”

Vanderhoef said the lawsuit challenges the Mobility Tax on several constitutional grounds, including the concept of home rule, by which local governments can determine allocation of local tax dollars and provides local leaders the ability to govern according to the local needs of their community.

“In our lawsuit, Rockland further asserts that there has been an historic disparity between our tax contributions to the MTA and the value of services received by Rockland from the MTA in the form of cash, capital projects and operating services,” Vanderhoef said.  “This situation was validated in a Benefit-Cost-Analysis performed by the MTA in 2005, which determined that there had existed a disparity of at least $40 million in quantifiable benefits between monies that the county paid to the MTA, and payment and services received by Rockland from the MTA.”