Proposed tax could cost LI Schools $24million
 
 (Long Island, N.Y.) Today, Nassau and Suffolk school community members united to rally against Governor David Paterson’s proposed .33% payroll tax on all employers within the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) region, including Nassau and Suffolk counties. 

“We are here to send Governor Paterson a message: ‘Don’t balance the MTA’s budget on the backs of our children!’” exclaimed Karen Lessler, coalition spokesperson and Board of Education President of the Middle Country Central School District. “We are outraged by the current proposal that would cost Long Island School Districts more than $24 million.”

If approved, the MTA Payroll Tax will cost Suffolk County school districts $12.8+ million and Nassau County school districts $11.6+ million.  Paterson and lawmakers face a March 25 deadline to finalize the MTA budget.

“The MTA Payroll Tax is another example of how the current leadership of this state continues to look at Long Island to solve economic problems.  First it was the devastating cuts to our schools in Governor Paterson’s budget and now the MTA is looking at our businesses, our schools and our local entities as an unlimited ATM.  The MTA needs to do a better job controlling its own spending before going to the taxpayers to bail them out,” stated Senator John Flanagan, the Ranking Republican Member of the Senate Standing Committee on Education.

According to Dr. Roberta Gerold, Middle Country Superintendent, “It is far too late for letters, we have to take action now by calling and emailing Governor Paterson to let him know we will not sacrifice our children’s education to balance the MTA’s budget!” 

“The state continues to provide local school district funds with one hand, while at the very same time adding unfunded mandates and shifting costs with the other,” explains Tom Shea, President of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association. “The MTA payroll tax and the shift of CPSE costs from the county and the state are just the latest examples. The result is that the MTA is now going to be supported by Long Island property taxes.”

“Nowhere but in the bizarre world of New York State government would school

budgets be raided to fund a transit system,” Jim Kaden, president of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association said. “The MTA’s plan would create a revenue stream that could be tapped whenever the MTA needed another bailout. We must tell Albany that schools are not an ATM that can be drained to meet the funding responsibilities of other levels of government.”

Members from Nassau/Suffolk School Boards Association, Suffolk and Nassau School Superintendents Associations, PTAs from across Long Island, parents, and organized labor were all present to rally for the cause. 

Pictured: Senator Flanagan, Karen Lessler, BOE President of the Middle Country Central School District and Dr. Roberta Gerold, Superintendent of the Middle Country Central School District talk about what the MTA tax will mean to school districts.