Governor Kathy Hochul proposed an increase in the state’s payroll tax to funnel much-needed money to the financially-teetering Metropolitan Transportation Authority and prevent painful service cuts, she announced in her executive budget presentation Wednesday, but straphangers can still expect to pay 5.5% more to ride the subway or bus this year.
Speaking at the state Capitol in Albany, the Democratic governor called to raise the payroll mobility tax on downstate businesses in the MTA’s service region — New York City, Long Island, and the lower Hudson Valley — from 0.34% to 0.5%, which she says will generate an additional $800 million in annual revenue for the fiscally-beleaguered authority, on top of the $1.8 billion it already projected receiving this year.
