Smith Says He Has Votes For MTA Plan
Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said today that he will have the 32 votes necessary to pass an MTA bailout plan.
“We will pass it,” he told reporters today. “We have the votes to pass an MTA plan.”
How he will get there, though, remains unclear. Two Long Island Democratic senators remain opposed to the inclusion of a payroll tax, which they claim would hurt the New York City suburbs.
Westchester County Sens. Suzi Oppenheimer and Andrea Stewart-Cousins have opposed a payroll tax largely because it would hurt schools who would have to pay the tax and thus might pass the cost onto property owners through higher taxes.
Yet some senators are hoping to lure them on board by getting approval to restore the STAR property-tax rebate check, which would alleviate some of the concerns over property taxes. Also, the payroll tax would be reduced the farther away the employer is from New York City.
Meanwhile, Smith explained that half of the revenue from a $1 surcharge on taxi-cab rides in the MTA region would go to fund upstate roads and bridges, which he said would be in addition to funding a five-year capital plan for the state’s transportation needs. The Legislature approved a $17 billion plan for roads and bridges four years ago.
Senate Democrats estimate that $95 million would be raised through the MTA plan and would be used to leverage $1.2 billion in bonds for upstate roads and bridges.
But Republicans aren’t buying into the plan, even though they have clamored for funding for upstate roads and bridges to be included in any MTA deal.
“It might paint a few bridges,” said Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, of the pot for upstate.
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Not only does he have the votes but he is also going to TAX all the lobbyists from Queens with a special MTA Queens Lobby Tax. He feels they are going to make a bundle and can well afford to chip in, plus if he loses they lose to.
VJ Machiavelli
NO MORE SCHUMER
NO MORE PELOSI
NO MORE RANGEL
NO MORE ENGEL AND HIS MILLION DOLLAR HOME IN MARYLAND
ps Hank Morris has a 4 million dollar plus home in East Hampton
Am I wrong in remembering that only recently, at a fund-raising golf outing set up for lobbyists and Pols, Smith PUBLICLY lectured those same lobbyists, after blatantly reminding them that the Democrats now controlled the State, with the words “If you want to play, you got to pay?”