Cuomo signs MTA tax cut in W. Hempstead

Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared in West Hempstead Monday to sign a new law that ends or reduces the Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll tax for hundreds of thousands of businesses and individuals in New York City and seven downstate counties.

"Small businesses are New York's growth engine, and this tax reduction will help create jobs and get our state's economy back on track without jeopardizing funding for the MTA," Cuomo said at the Cornwell Avenue Elementary School.

The new law also exempts all elementary and secondary schools, public or private, from the tax.

Businesses with an annual payroll of between $10,000 and $1.25 million -- about 290,000 -- will no longer pay the tax. Another 6,000 businesses with payrolls of between $1.25 million and $1.75 million, will see tax cuts of one-third to two-thirds.

Last week, the state legislature passed Cuomo's Middle Class Tax Cut and Job Creation bill, which reduced the MTA tax on businesses and on about 414,000 self-employed taxpayers.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), Sen. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), County Executive Edward Mangano and Deputy Speaker Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead) accompanied Cuomo at the news conference.