Putnam County To Join MTA Payroll Tax Lawsuit
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the town of East Meadow in Nassau County was joining the fight against the nonsensical MTA Payroll Tax a.k.a The Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax. A businessman filed a lawsuit against New York State claiming the tax was against the State Constitution.
The beef with the tax is shared by many throughout the region as support to fight it continues to grow. Putnam County is the latest to join the fight as they will be joining the lawsuit. Here is more from a report released today in the Mid-Hudson News:
Putnam County Legislature Chairman Vincent Tamagna said he has instructed the county’s law department to join Nassau County in its lawsuit against the state for imposing the payroll tax last year to help bail out the New York City MTA.
Tamagna said enough is enough; let the issue be resolved in the courts.
“We need to stand up with a loud voice. The taxpayers cannot afford this kind of waste in government in that it is our intent to bring this through a court system, that to tax people who do not use the service and are outside the area to create the climate of making our business community non-competitive, to tax our non-profits, our schools, the triplication of this MTA tax is just outrageous,” he said, Thursday.
Wednesday, the Orange County towns of Chester, Deerpark and Monroe also voted to join the Nassau County payroll tax court suit.
As I mentioned in the linked thread above, I question whether the tax is really unconstitutional. I also wondered if it happened to be found so, would all of the money collected be refunded? This suit has the potential to cause some major landslides in the already fragile MTA financial situation.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Estimates $52M In Unused Fares
One little piece of revenue for the MTA is something unknown to casual riders. The revenue I am referring to is fare liability. This is the amount of money the MTA makes when riders do not use the full monetary amount on their MetroCard & let it lapse or from the purchase of fares not used such as rail road tickets.
Next year, the cash strapped agency expects to bring in $52M from fare liability. Pete Donohue of the New York Daily News has more:
The MTA estimates $52 million worth of bus and subway trips will be purchased – but not used – by straphangers next year.
That mountain of cash would buy more than 23 million trips at the highest fare, the $2.25 base fare. It also would buy every resident of Staten Island a 30-day MetroCard at the proposed higher price of $99.
The $52 million is listed in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority financial plans as one of the sources of revenue in the $12 billion spending plan.
Click here for the complete report.
Personally I don’t see the agency reaching this figure. With all the talk of what equals out to a MetroCard tax, I don’t think there will be as many unused rides throughout the system. This is the kind of budget figure that will be mentioned in a future board meeting as coming in severely under budget.
My main beef in the story lies with the potential change in the allowed time frame to use a railroad ticket. I feel the 90 day window is just fine as it has saved me on a # of occasions as I had an extra ticket or two lying around. If they were to lower it, 30 days should be the smallest time frame & not the 7 mentioned. Enough with putting the screws to riders.
xoxo Transit Blogger
You might enjoy reading these related entries:- MTA Board Approves Limited Fare Increases
- A Sneak Peak At Upcoming MTA Fare Hikes
- 2011 Fare Hike To Have MetroCard Tax?
- MTA Schedules A Special Meeting
- Monthly MetroCard Could Be Capped At 90 Trips
Service Advisory 08-05-10
I have just updated the “Service Diversions” page with the latest weekend diversions. The remaining diversions scheduled to end by 11:59 PM Friday are still listed. The next update will be sometime after 12:01 AM Saturday when those diversions are officially over.
If you are going to the Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing, click here for information on shuttle bus service being provided. If you are going to the Dominican Day Parade, click here for service advisory information. I suggest you print out a copy of the page to carry with you or use any mobile device to access the phone-friendly version of Transit Blogger. As always, have safe travels!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Dominican Day Parade Service Advisory
As is usually the case with major events in NYC, some mass transit will be affected & have service advisories in place. This Sunday is the Dominican Day Parade & MTA NYC Transit issued a press release with service advisory information:
You might enjoy reading these related entries:This year’s Dominican Day Parade will be held on Sunday, August 8 along the Avenue of the Americas. The parade kicks off at 1 p.m. at 36th Street and continues to 56th Street. The best way to join the festivities is by mass transit.
Customers can take the
,
,
,
,
and
to 34th Street-Herald Square, the
Please note that this weekend,
- Service Advisory For Dominican Day Parade
- 2013 Dominican Day Parade Service Advisory
- Service Advisory For Presidential Visit
- Presidential Visit Leads To Potential Detours
- Bus Diversions Due To Easter Parade
Shuttle Bus For Hong Kong Boat Festival
As was the case last year, MTA NYC Transit will be operating a shuttle bus for those attending the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing Meadow Park. Here are the complete details courtesy of a press release I received:
The annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival will be held in Queens’ Flushing Meadow Park on Saturday, August 6 and Sunday, August 7. And, similar to last year, MTA New York City Transit will operate a fare paid shuttle bus from Mets-Willets Point 7 subway station to the festival site in the park.
Customers pay the regular fare or use their subway-to-bus or bus-to-bus MetroCard transfer option to board this special event shuttle bus. As the festival site is some distance from local bus and subway routes, these shuttle buses will operate directly, non-stop, between the Mets-Willets Point 7 subway station and the festival site in Flushing Meadow Park about every 5 minutes from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. A new route will be in place this year that eliminates the need to operate the bus on College Point Blvd. or the Van Wyck Expressway.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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