A pair of regional state legislators is calling for an audit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority timed to coincide with the transit authority chief”™s departure.
The MTA has attracted withering fire since it instituted a payroll tax of 33 cents on every $100 of earned income to offset red ink and to better maintain transit lines. Opposition was especially fierce in car-centric regions north and west of New York City.
Although state Sen. Greg Ball, one of the legislators seeking what he terms a “forensic audit,” has sought repeal of the payroll tax for two years, the timing of his recent announcement ”“ made in conjunction with fellow Republican Steve Katz, assemblyman from Yorktown, comes at a time of change at the MTA: two-year Chairman Jay Walder is leaving his post with four years remaining in his term to work in Hong Kong.
No replacement for Walder has been named. Ball and Katz acted just days after Walder”™s announced departure.
“There is no better time than now,” Ball, who has called for the audit since 2009, said in a prepared statement. “We”™ve known of corruption and gross mismanagement within the authority for years. We have an opportunity here, with new leadership at the helm, to get a fresh start and save taxpayers, communities and small business owners millions of dollars.”
Media reports cited a lack of support from the state for MTA initiatives, including, as reported in The New York Times, a personal chilliness between Walder and the governor. Walder was said to be peeved the state did not come to the MTA”™s defense as it has faced a recession-plagued public armed with computers and a willingness to gripe.
Ball did not mince words in his disdain for the so-called commuter tax.
“The single most important thing we can do collectively in the Hudson Valley to create jobs is reverse the MTA payroll tax. This is the final nail in the coffin for a state that is trending vociferously into a downward spiral.”
Ball has sponsored a bill that would both repeal the commuter tax and initiate an audit. The bill passed the state Senate June 5. Its fate either with the Democrat-controlled Assembly or with the governor is uncertain.
“The MTA is one of the most costly agencies in the nation, and it is completely irresponsible to ask the people, and employers, of New York state to spend one more dime funding this agency until a complete accounting of their finances is made public,” Katz said.
