Benefits of fighting MTA payroll tax

The odds are running very strongly against a total repeal of the MTA payroll tax, the enactment of which sparked a bitter electoral backlash on Long Island three years ago.

But as unlikely as the chances may be, local elected officials -- especially those with few mass transit users in their districts -- seem to see no downside in lining up behind a repeal bill.

By keeping the issue alive, state lawmakers at least get to remind voters of the partial success they shared in late last year when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation rolling back a portion of the tax.

Hailing that measure, its sponsors spoke only weeks ago of how it provided tax relief for nearly 300,000 small businesses and others. In effect, the state was shaving about $250 million of the estimated annual $1.4 billion-plus revenue from the tax, created in the first place to rescue the transit system from fiscal collapse.

Consider the political lift of the partial repeal for state Sen. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), whose campaign hammered away at the new tax in 2010, when he unseated one-term Democrat Brian Foley. "A lot of people said we'd never be successful in having any of it repealed," Zeldin said this week. "While I'm very pleased we made the progress we did for 80 percent of those paying the tax in Suffolk alone, we'll continue to advocate for the other 20 percent."

So far, a Democratic challenger to Zeldin has yet to emerge. Democrats say they have a couple of prospects, still to be named. The same goes for the re-election effort of first-term state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola), who's pushing to remove libraries from the payroll tax.

For many reasons, legislative first-termers ordinarily are viewed as the most vulnerable to challenge from the opposite party.

In a wider context, the ongoing issue shows how times have changed.

Once Long Island's powerful Senate bloc would proudly deliver big-time goodies from the pork barrel. Now they might be considered lucky to be able to tell voters they helped modestly relieve the costs of existing services.

The lean years had commenced by 2009 when the state imposed a 0.34 percent tax on payroll expenses of all employers and on net earnings of self-employed individuals engaged in business within the MTA's 12-county service area.

Last December, Cuomo and lawmakers cut the percentage of the tax to 0.23 percent for payrolls below $1.75 million, and to zero for those below $1.25 million. The state is to make up the difference to the MTA. But when asked about full repeal last Thursday, Cuomo asked where the MTA revenues would be made up.

On Monday, MTA chairman Joseph Lhota raised the threat of a different billion-dollar hole. He and New York House members gathered at Grand Central Terminal to slam a GOP bill in the House of Representatives that would end the share of gasoline taxes that has gone to mass-transit systems since the Reagan administration.

Lhota called the bill "the worst piece of legislation anyone could ever imagine."

For the moment, it seems unlikely this cutoff would survive a final U.S. Senate version. But the House measure -- aimed to fund highway systems -- has its fans. Transportation Committee chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.), for one, calls it "the most significant reform of transportation programs in decades."

Will folks in Mica's district on the state's Atlantic coast fault him for trying?