Wake Up the Sleeping Giant

The “Sleeping Giant” train passes through Cold Spring station. On Tuesday evening, the Putnam County Legislature voted to file an article 78 to protest the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s so-called mobility tax, which amounts to .34 percent of payroll expense for all employers in the metropolitan commuter transportation district, retroactive to March 1.

Earlier this summer, the county legislature took a stronger, principled stance: They voted to disobey the law by refusing to pay the tax, which had been foisted upon Putnam and other Hudson Valley counties who are underrepresented on the MTA board and which do not rely on the MTA in the same way as residents of New York City.

At the time, legislators proudly spoke of their act of civil disobedience, but then County Executive Bob Bondi then vetoed the legislature’s tax revolt. Bondi said he was personally opposed to the tax but that the county’s failure to pay up would result in higher costs down the road in the form of penalties and even the revocation of grants. We understand that the county executive has a special responsibility to see that the laws are enacted, but the county legislature does not have the same duty.

Given that the legislature surely had the votes to override the executive’s veto, why did they back down? Have the legislators changed their minds since they voted to disobey? Have they been duly rebuked by Executive Bondi? Have they been sent into submission by threats from Albany? Or did they vote to disobey with the comfort of knowing that the executive would issue a veto, preventing any serious repercussions to their actions? If so, the effect of their initial act of “civil disobedience” is greatly diminished.

We are a nation of many governments, with distinct powers, mandates, and jurisdictions—villages, towns, counties, and states, each divided into multiple, independent branches. This system allows for checks and balances, and provides for the people to govern themselves in a real way, close to home.

And when some levels of government overreach, citizens have the opportunity to stand firm in their localities by making strong statements to entrenched and decadent power.

What is the point of our county government if it taxes us but fails to stand in favor of the people’s interest? Yes, we understand that the county provides a myriad of services, but on a more basic level, it should provide a check and balance to other levels of government. Otherwise, the county government might as well reincorporate as a satellite office of the state, staffed like a DMV by bureaucrats.

Even if in the end Putnam will have to pay the MTA tax, it is worth sending a message to Albany that imposing such a burden will not be taken lightly—a strong suggestion that more onerous taxes will not go over well with the people of Putnam. On the other hand, if there is only half-hearted resistance on the ground to a recession-era payroll tax hike on all employers—including businesses, charities, and public schools, then what will stop our elected state leaders from imposing further burdens in the future?

While filing an article 78 might be worthwhile, overriding the county executive’s veto would have sent a clear message to Albany, one that just might have awakened the mass of frustrated taxpayers slumbering in the hills of the Hudson Valley, the cradle of our American liberties.