Group recognizes fight against MTA tax

Pattern for Progress honored chambers and economic development corporations from the mid-Hudson region who have been fighting an uphill battle against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority”™s “mobility tax” at its annual dinner on Nov. 5.  The first payments on the payroll tax, which takes 33 cents of every $100 of payroll, were made by business owners from sole proprietors to national corporations on Nov. 2, with the tax retroactive to March 31, 2009. 
The tax will be billed to businesses quarterly and there is no “sunset”™ on the legislation.

Among those receiving recognition were  John D”™Ambrosio, president, Orange County Chamber of Commerce; Marsha Gordon, president, The Business Council of Westchester; Maureen Halahan, president, Orange County Partnership; Ron Hicks, president, Rockland Economic Development Corp; Ann Meagher, president, Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce; Margaret Moree, director of federal affairs, The Business Council of New York State; Charles North, president,  Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce; and Al Samuels, president, Rockland Business Association.

“Did anyone help the Hudson Valley when gas was $4 a gallon?” asked John D”™Ambrosio when the MTA bailout proposal was first floated in the state capitol.  “No one in my office uses the MTA and the majority of our members use their cars to get to work every day.”

While they may have lost the battle ”“ the tax, which takes 34 cents of every hundred dollars of payroll from for-profits nonprofits ”“ economic leaders are hopeful they have not lost the war. At a recent meeting at the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp., Paterson conceded that the tax might be an undue burden on the mid-Hudson counties ”“ but said until the state”™s books are balanced, there is no other way to fund the MTA.

Leaders and local business owners will have an opportunity to hear America”™s largest commuter agency”™s take on it when Jay Walder, who became chairman in October replacing Elliot Sander, comes to the Hudson Valley Dec. 1. He”™s scheduled for breakfast with the Southern Dutchess Chamber of Commerce, coffee with Orange County”™s chamber and then off to lunch with the Rockland Business Association.