Residents of Great Neck, New Hyde Park, Williston Park and East Williston should be concerned about potential legislative actions of neighboring Queens Democratic state Assembly member David Weprin and colleagues.
Weprin is in the process of introducing a bill in Albany as part of his annual campaign to reinstate the commuter tax for non New York City residents. This would force Great Neck, New Hyde Park, Williston Park, East Williston and other Nassau County residents to pay for New York City infrastructure improvements.
His proposal, which if enacted would have resulted in any revenues generated split equally between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the City of New York, sounds great, but missed the potential consequences of his position. Remember that this is on top of the MTA Mobility Tax 0.34 percent Payroll Tax including net Self Employment, Drivers License Fee of $1 for each six month’s of validity including learner’s permit, Auto Registration Fee of $25 per year on registration and renewal of motor vehicles $27, Taxicab Tax 0.50 cents per taxicab ride imposed on taxicab owners $85, Auto Rental Tax Additional tax of 5 percent on the cost of automobile rentals and supplemental regional petroleum business tax enacted in May 2009 by the state Legislature.
All of these supplement the older Mortgage Recording, Petroleum Business, Motor Fuel Excise, Sales and Corporate Franchise taxes already in place. The average New Yorker isn’t really aware of paying many of these taxes during day to day financial transactions.
He and others miss the potential consequences of this legislation. Will our own state Assembly member Michelle Schimel lobby her colleague Assembly member Weprin to reconsider his proposal? Will she convince her colleagues including state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to defeat this proposal? Constituents will be following this story as it unfolds.
In today’s global economy, boundaries which end at the city line between NYC, Nassau County and others mean very little. We are all neighbors and thankfully there has never been a Berlin Wall between us.
The United States is in economic competition against other nations. Within the USA, residents of the Northeastern states compete against other state coalitions based in the South, Rocky Mountains, West and other regions.
Our Metropolitan New York area comprising NYC, Long Island, northeast New Jersey, Hudson Valley and parts of southwestern Connecticut are in competition against other metropolitan areas around the nation and world. I work in New York City. My wife and I travel around the five boroughs enjoying shopping, dining, going to the movies, visiting museums and taking advantage of the diverse different neighborhoods.
Each weekday several thousand Great Neck, New Hyde Park, Williston Park and East Williston residents travel to jobs in NYC — the economic engine of our region. Many others enjoy sporting events, the theater, museums, restaurants and shopping.
A growing number of NYC residents have become reverse commuters to jobs in the same communities. Other NYC residents shop, dine and visit our neighborhoods. It is naive to believe that NYC can survive economically in today’s ever changing technology and global economy without Long Island and the rest of Metropolitan New York. The suburbs around the Big Apple are equally dependent on the success of NYC.
Democratic state Assembly Speaker Silver only needs 75 votes plus his own for passage of this new tax.
With Democrats controlling 59 of 61 seats in NYC, Silver starts off with 59 votes including his own. It will be interesting to see how Republican Assembly members Nicole Malliskatos (60th — Brooklyn/Staten Island) and Lou Tobacco 62nd (Staten Island) will vote.
All Silver needs is 17 more out of the remaining 30 fellow Democratic Assembly members who make up 99 of the 150 members of the state Assembly. Silver can afford to allow Assembly member Schimel (16th) and Harvey Weisenberg (20th) both from Nassau County along with 11 other colleagues including Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (2nd), Steven Englebright (4th), Robert K. Sweeney (11th) and Charles D. Lavine 13th all from Suffolk County; Amy R. Paulin (88th), Sandra R. Golef (90th) and Mike Spano (93rd) all from Westchester County; Kenneth P. Zebrowski (98th) and Ellen C. Jafee (95th) both from Rockland County and Kevin A. Cahill 101st from Dutchess/Ulster County from potentially competitive suburban districts political cover by letting them vote no.
Silver is too wise to concede this issue so it can be used by any Republican challenger in 2012 to these members of his caucus.
Others such as Phil R. Ramo (6th) Suffolk, Earlene Hooper (18th) Nassau, J. Gary Prelow (87th), George S. Latimer (91st) and Thomas J. Abinanti (92nd) all from Westchester and Aileen M. Gunther (98th) Sullivan/Orange County all represent districts which Republicans will never be competitive. As a result, they could all vote for a commuter tax on their own constituents without any fear of political repercussions.
Republican state Senate leader Dean Skelos only has a one vote margin should he desire to defeat reinstitution of a commuter tax on non NYC residents. If either GOP Staten Island Sen. Andrew Lanza or Bay Ridge Brooklyn Sen. Marty Golden join the Democratic state senators – this legislation might actually pass both chambers.
Remember that all 22 of 24 NYC based Democratic senators from NYC will most likely vote in favor. Only Democratic Senators Suzi Oppenheimer (37th), David Carlucii (38th) and Andrea Stewart-Cousins (35th) who collectively represent a significant number of constituents who commute from either Putnam, Rockland or Westchester County to NYC might vote against this bill. Just like their suburban Democratic Assembly colleagues, they may not want to concede this issue to any potential Republican challenger in 2012.
Residents of Long Island and NYC in the end have much in common. We should work together as neighbors and not adversaries.
Reintroduction of a commuter tax on one set of nonresidents could trigger an economic tariff war among neighbors. With the financial crises on Wall Street followed by our economic recession, thousands of commuters residing outside of NYC including many from Great Neck, New Hyde Park, Williston Park and East Williston lost their jobs.
As a result, the reintroduction of any non NYC resident commuter tax will not bring in the same level of revenues as was the case during the 1990’s when it was last in place. It could result in a retaliatory commuter tax by Nassau County, other impacted suburban counties, New Jersey or Connecticut on NYC residents. At the end of the day, everyone could lose.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
