County Will Pay MTA Tax ‘Under Duress’

While Putnam County continues to fight the MTA’s recently enacted mobility tax through the courts, lawmakers have grudgingly approved the county’s first payment.

Meeting in regular session last week, the Putnam Legislature voted 8-1, with Legislator Dan Birmingham casting the lone dissenting vote, to forward a check for $127,500 to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the municipality’s share that will cost businesses, schools, and local governments millions of dollars in order to bail out the MTA.

Last summer, County Executive Robert Bondi vetoed a resolution approved by the nine-member governing body calling for the county to refrain from paying the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the tax.

Bondi agreed with the legislature that the mobility tax was an “onerous tax adversely affecting the businesses and residents of our county,” but he vetoed the resolution nevertheless, charging that it would unlawful for the county not to pay the state. Bondi said it was his “fiduciary duty as County Executive to uphold the laws of New York State, whether I agree with them or not. The legislature also shares in this responsibility.”

Bondi urged Putnam to “pay this bill as required by law in a timely fashion to avoid interest and penalties and late filing fees that will adversely affect our taxpayers.”

In August, the legislature initiated an Article 78 proceeding against the state and the MTA. Legislator Vincent Tamagna of Cold Spring believes a “court of law must make a decision on whether the county has an issue of taxation without representation.”

Following last week’s vote, Chairman Tony Hay of Southeast told the Courier that Putnam had no choice: “We will be penalized if we don’t pay the tax. The lawsuit continues. Government gets hit with ridiculous legislation that is beyond our control. Even government can’t fight city hall!”

Legislator Tamagna agreed. “Penalties that would cost the taxpayers even more money are out of the question. The fight continues because a retroactive tax is unprecedented, unfair, and will be fought to the bitter end.”

The Philipstown lawmaker called the mobility tax “unconscionable,” and he urged every county in the MTA region to follow Putnam’s lead.
YEA
Vincent Tamagna
Richard Othmer
Mary Ellen Odell
Dini LoBue
Tony Fusco
Mary Conklin
Sam Oliverio
Tony Hay
NAY
Dan Birmingham