They’re full speed ahead – into New Yorkers’ wallets.
Final details on a big business-bashing payroll tax to fund the MTA’s ambitious capital plan were revealed Thursday as lawmakers voted on the behemoth $254 billion state budget.
The nitty-gritty budget bills also revealed a new way for the MTA to generate much needed cash: speed cameras targeting lead-footed bridge-and-tunnel drivers.
Raising taxes to “feed the bottomless pit at the MTA” undercut Gov. Kathy Hochul’s argument that the much-delayed budget is an affordability win for New Yorkers, state Sen. James Skoufis (D-Orange) said.
“Meanwhile, if the Governor ever got out of her helicopter, she would know the basics of government — like repaving roads or addressing crippling property taxes — continue to be neglected under her leadership,” he said.
The payroll mobility tax hike facing city companies with yearly payrolls of $10 or more will bump their rates from 0.6% to 0.895%.
And big payroll businesses in Long Island, Westchester and other suburban counties served by the MTA will see their rates go from 0.34% to 0.635%.
The hikes — which will help pay for the $68 billion plan to modernize the MTA’s decaying trains, stations and infrastructure — follow the outlines revealed in a handshake deal between Hochul and state legislative leaders.
Many, but not all, business leaders fumed over the tax hike expected to hit up to 10,000 New York companies.
“Things will be run tighter, possibly with fewer raises,” billionaire business mogul John Catsimatidis, who owns the Gristedes and D’Agostino’s grocery chains, previously told The Post. “Will there be fewer hires? Absolutely!”
While the tax is being hiked on larger businesses, it’s also being cut completely for employers with yearly payrolls that are less than $1.25 million.
The budget bills didn’t just give the MTA a tax windfall.
The MTA soon could install speed cameras in construction zones on its bridges and tunnels – including the Verrazzano Bridge – under a law tweak tucked into the budget.
The tweak expands a pilot program that already put the speeder-trapping cameras in certain New York State Thruway and state highway work zones.
The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, Queens-Midtown Tunnel and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge are among the nine MTA-run bridges and tunnels that could see cameras.
The fines will be $50 for a first violation and $75 for a second within an 18-month window, MTA officials said.
Third and all subsequent speeding violations will be a $100 fine, the officials said.
The cameras can only be set up after public hearing and vote by the MTA’s board, according to the bill.
Any MTA construction zone speed cameras will be separate from those working for the $9 construction pricing tolls for motorists entering Manhattan south of 60th Street.
The first-in-the-nation toll program has been criticized as effectively a tax on everyday New Yorkers who need to drive into lower Manhattan.
Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick
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