The Metropolitan Transportation Authority bailout is not a long-term fix , Nicole writes in today’s Post . The downstate economy will pay a steep price for what will be, at best, a temporary solution to the MTA’s enormous budget shortfalls, she points out.
For what taxpayers are giving up here, they should’ve gotten more in return. Lost in the relief over the averting of MTA bankruptcy is the fact that the $1.5 billion annual payroll tax created to fund the deal is a tax on jobs . New York is already the least business-friendly state — and Downstate is already hemorrhaging jobs.
Here is the text of the bailout bill passed yesterday.
You may also like
As the Legislature prepares to authorize new downstate casinos, some voters who supported the amendment are discovering they came up snake-eyes.
Read More
Every year for over a decade, the Empire Center has submitted Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the payrolls of MTA corporate subsidiaries. And in almost every one o
Read More
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has assigned its own police force to monitor attendance and overtime use by Long Island Railroad employees, the Daily News reports.
Read More
When motorists in New York top off their gas tanks this Labor Day weekend, they’ll be paying an average of about 45 cents per gallon in state and local fuel taxes—the 5th highest total in the nation, and second highest in the Northeast.
Read More
In their budget bills, state Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans both had the good sense to reject one of the most egregious fiscal-political gimmicks ever to emerge from Governor Andrew Cuomo: a temporary income tax credit that would have reimbursed a portion of Thruway tolls paid by New York State residents and businesses.
Read More
So, how is Governor Andrew Cuomo paying for that $100 billion infrastructure "development initiative" that, as he put in his State of the State message yesterday, "would make Governor Rockefeller jealous"?
The answer: for the most part, he actually isn't.
Read More
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) could be taking the money-losing state Barge Canal off the back of the Thruway Authority under the fiscal 2017 state budget that will be proposed today by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Assuming this Buffalo News report is true, it would explain how Cuomo intends to finance his proposal to freeze Thruway tolls for five years even while building the $4.8 billion Tappan Zee Bridge replacement.
Read More
The MTA has now paid the Empire Center's expenses for a successful lawsuit compelling timely release of the agency's payroll data.
Read More