County legislators, village mayors, town supervisors, city managers, council members and other municipal officials today joined with Senator Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) to denounce the MTA Payroll Tax and its devastating effect on municipalities and taxpayers.

The $1.5 billion payroll tax, which is the biggest money raiser to bailout the MTA, is hitting local governments hard. Municipal officials have said this will force them to cut more services and/or raise property taxes to pay these new costs.

Senator Hannon (R-Garden City) said, "The taxpayers will feel the pain of this payroll tax when municipalities are forced to raise property taxes to cover it. A tax on jobs during a time of record unemployment rates is counterproductive and will further hurt local governments' abilities to balance budgets and maintain services."

Based on the state comptroller's most recent report on Financial Data for Municipal Governments, Nassau County expects to hand over more than $3 million while the payroll tax's impact on the county's 64 villages will be close to $1.9 million. The County's larger villages such as Hempstead and Garden City will see a tax impact around $111,351 and $82,260 respectively.

Smaller villages such as Farmingdale and Massapeaqua Park will see a tax impact of about $6,629 and $6,074 respectively.

The Town of Oyster Bay is expected to be billed around $314,901; and Hempstead $522,725. Tack on thousands more for water, sewer and sanitation districts.

School Districts in Nassau County will see an initial $13.3 million tax. While there is intent to reimburse the public schools, the law does not guarantee it. This places such a tremendous burden on every district including for example; Levittown where the new tax burden looms at $511,567, East Meadow at $468,832, Plainview at $343,988, Garden City $255,547, and Plainedge at $185,503.

Senator Hannon voted against the payroll tax drafted by Senate Democrats because it will raises taxes, cost jobs, close businesses and the school tax reimbursement is not guaranteed. There is also no sunset provision in the law. After enormous pressure put upon the two Senate Democrats from Long Island, Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) and Brian X. Foley (D-Blue Point) they ultimately voted in favor of the payroll tax.

The payroll tax is retroactive to March 1, 2009 for municipalities and all others required to pay it (except for school districts which must begin in September, 2009). The first payment is due with the year's 2nd quarterly filing in June unless the municipality or business pays electronically which is monthly.

Supervisor John Venditto said, "The impact of the payroll tax is nothing short of devastating to Long Island's economy. In the current fiscal climate, it places an unnecessary additional hardship on already hard-pressed businesses, municipalities, school districts, charitable and non-profit organizations, the self-employed and, ultimately, on taxpayers, because the cost will be passed on to them in the form of higher taxes and prices for goods and services. No good will come of this tax because it does not address the long-term viability of the MTA and threatens the financial viability of those employers forced to pay it. Making the tax retroactive to March 1 only adds insult to injury. This oppressive tax should be repealed immediately!"

Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray said, "The MTA Payroll Tax is a 'job killer' in a time when we should be creating opportunities for our working families. During these tough economic times, this tax will push companies out of our region to more business friendly locations."