Thiele Opposes Governor's Proposed MTA Payroll Tax Hike

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said a proposal to raise the Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll tax included in Governor Kathy Hochul’s initial state budget was a “nonstarter’ for him.

“When we pay more taxes to the MTA, we never get more service,” Thiele said this week. “If you didn’t know better, you’d think ‘MTA bailout’ was one word.”

Thiele said he voted against the tax when it was first introduced in 2009 and worked to achieve a partial rollback for small businesses that had been subjected to it.

Under the governor’s proposal, an increase in the tax rate from ½ percent to 1/3 percent would raise an estimated $800 million a year, according to Thiele.

He conceded that the MTA suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, when ridership dropped precipitously, but said the authority is a textbook example of inefficiency and added that it has already received “a boatload of federal dollars to stay afloat.”

Because the Long Island Rail Road is focused on New York City commuter passengers, the East End is often overlooked, Thiele added. He said the South Fork Commuter Connection shuttle service has been one of the railroad’s few successes in recent years, yet the LIRR has done little to help.

“Ridership keeps growing, and people love it,” he said. “Yet without infrastructure improvements, we really can’t expand it.” He said the East End needs an additional three or four sidings between Speonk and Montauk to allow trains to pass one another as well as more equipment dedicated to the commuter service.

“The LIRR always says, ‘Let talk,’” Thiele said. “Yet they never do.”

Thiele said he was confident the legislature would eliminate the proposed tax hike. “We’re just at the beginning of the budget process,” he said. “I think there’s a good chance of getting this thrown out.”