The MTA payroll tax is under fire.
Gov. Cuomo yesterday signaled his displeasure with the controversial levy — 34 cents for every $100 of payroll — that the state imposed on every business in the MTA’s nine-county service region during the agency’s 2009 bailout.
“It is a very onerous tax. Not just in this area,” Cuomo said at an event at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, echoing a position he took during the campaign.
“People are complaining on Long Island, the entire metropolitan region. I’ve said from the beginning I understand the need to finance the system. If we can find a better way to do it, I’m open.”
He is the highest state official to say he’d repeal the tax imposed under his predecessor — under the right circumstances.
Meanwhile, MTA CEO Jay Walder revealed that he’d yet to talk to the new governor about transit issues — saying he’d been speaking with the governor’s aides, instead.