Tax reduction means 'one less expense'

Both the Malverne and West Hempstead school districts will save more than $80,000 thanks to a recently passed tax reduction bill that exempts them from paying the Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll tax next year.

Although the state reimbursed school districts that paid the mobility tax, which was implemented in 2009, the districts still had to budget the payment, pay it — or borrow money to pay it, in West Hempstead’s case — and then wait for compensation, which took a significant amount of time to arrive (two years before Malverne saw the money).

“We’re very happy that this tax has been [reduced],” West Hempstead Deputy Superintendent Richard Cunningham told the Herald, “because we no longer have to plan to borrow or account for that money somehow in our planning for the next year. And we don’t have to keep that steady eye out, watching for it to come back or have the concern that perhaps New York state would find itself in the position where it couldn’t pay it back — that was always a fear.”

Tom McDaid, Malverne’s business administrator, said simply that the reduction will benefit everyone. “It’s one less line item in the budget,” he said. “It’s definitely a good thing.”

Local small-business owners, who benefit most significantly from the cut, were thrilled with the news, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered last week when he signed the bill at the Cornwell Avenue School in West Hempstead. Ann Stampfel, who owns the Malverne Cinema with her husband, Henry, said hearing the good news made her day. “It should never have been imposed in the first place,” she said. “It was a true burden on businesses already feeling the effects of a slow economy. … It burned me every time we had to file.”

Payroll taxes are a “big obstacle when you need to hire people,” according to Steven Santoro, a West Hempstead resident who works as the vice president for Visan Fuel Oil Co. Inc. “For the past few years, the recession has made it incredibly difficult to figure out an annual budget and payroll taxes has been one of those expenses that is unavoidable and you feel like you get nothing out of it,” Santoro told the Herald. “I … can’t think of any benefit an MTA tax has for my company.”

Only one of Visan’s eight employees uses public transportation once or twice a week when she can’t get a ride; “The rest all drive to work,” Santoro said, “so why do I have to supplement the MTA with my tax dollars?”

Well, now he won’t have to do that. More than 37,260 small businesses in Nassau County and 34,700 in Suffolk are among those who will benefit from the tax reduction. The MTA payroll tax will be eliminated for 289,000 small businesses throughout the state that have annual payroll between $10,000 and $1.25 million. More than 6,000 businesses with payrolls between $1.25 million and $1.75 million will see either a one-third or two-thirds payroll tax cut.

Owner of Malverne’s Connolly Station Gerry Hughes applauded the bill, saying, “Any reduction is great for us in these times, the way business is. … It’s one less expense we have.”

The reduction takes effect immediately in most cases, but will be phased in for some, including schools, throughout the winter and into the spring.