When is the last time you were on the New York subway, or utilized a component of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)? Put in place last year, employers of 12 NY counties pay a payroll tax of $.34 for each $100 of payroll to help the MTA through it’s cash deficit. Employers- far from NYC (some of whom never ever took that “trip to the big City”) found themselves levied with another tax that really had nothing to do with them and once more added another layer of difficulty to small business. Is it fair? Not really- can the county of Rochester levy a tax on the citizens of NYC to help fund their deficit gap? Not really…
This week Gov. David Paterson proposed a change in the way the MTA tax is levied, proposing to raise it for NYC employers $.20, while cutting it by $.17 for all others. Assembly leaders and Senators of the outlying suburbs continue to clash to reverse this tax entirely, and the fight goes on. Is it fair to burden employers, tens and hundreds of miles from NYC with additional taxes which they will never benefit from? Small business is the backbone of this country: why does it seem that as hard as the little guy is working, there is someone, somewhere, that feels that business owners and “the rich” will always dig them out? Do they not understand that the more expenses that they levy on the business owner, the higher retail prices and services will escalate? Isn’t that, in part, how we got into this mess in the first place?
It’s time for local government to take responsibility for its own actions, and not expect others, who are not involved to bail them out- but hey…tell that to the banks and auto industry…
