MTA will reap NYC business tax, speed camera fines under NY's $254B behemoth budget
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.
3 A Gov. Kathy Hochul-approved budget deal includes a tax hike on big businesses for the MTA.
Lev Radin/ZUMA / SplashNews.com
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.
3 Speed cameras soon could be coming to the MTA's bridges and tunnels.
KKF – stock.adobe.com
3 The Verrazzano Bridge is among nine bridges and tunnels where the MTA could set up cameras in work zones.
AFP via Getty Images
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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She argues that 'not being available for people or press doesn't work in New York City' and that it could feel 'disingenuous' and 'offensive to voters' to start now. Finding an issue to galvanize voters around Mamdani's success, in part, stems from his centering of the issue of affordability, and the popularity of his calls to 'freeze the rent,' make buses free, and provide free childcare in the city. Heersink says that Cuomo will need to find an equally compelling issue of his own to galvanize voters around. 'I think if you were to ask people what are the policies that Cuomo ran on in the Democratic primary, they would have a tough time summarizing that,' he says. 'To be fair, I think that's a criticism you can make of lots of candidates in the Democratic primary.' Yet, Mamdani differentiated himself in this sense, making sure that his policies stood out. When discussing his re-entry to the race, Cuomo told New York Magazine that combatting crime will be a core focus of his platform. 'We either stop the crime, stop the exodus, or we pivot now and start to bring the city back,' he said. 'But I believe it's A or B. You continue the decline and we have real trouble. Or we take a different path to start to make some changes. And I think Mamdani takes us in exactly the wrong direction.' Yet, with Adams in the race, Arbour says that it will be harder for Cuomo to "differentiate himself on this issue,' as it's a core principle of Adams' platform, too. "It's certainly the issue that Adams wants to talk about [also], and it fits with his background,' Arbour says, highlighting Adams' focus on combatting crime since his election in 2021.
