Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that revises the metropolitan commuter transportation payroll tax and appropriates funding to the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Highlights:

• Exempts all public and private primary and secondary schools, as well as employers located in the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District (MCTD) with 25 or less employees from the payroll tax, beginning January 1, 2012 (Sec. 1).

• Specifies that the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District is compromised of the counties contained within Region One and Region Two (Sec. 1):
• Defines "Region One" of the MCTD as a region of counties contained within a city with a population of one million or more; and
• Defines "Region Two" of the MCTD as the counties of Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester.

• Reduces the following payroll taxes (Sec. 2):
• Within Region One from 0.34 percent to 0.28 percent beginning January 1, 2013, and to 0.21 percent, beginning January 1, 2014; and
• Within Region Two from 0.34 percent to 0.23 percent beginning January 1, 2012, to 0.12 percent, beginning January 1, 2013, and completely eliminates the payroll tax, beginning January 1, 2014.

• Appropriates $150 million dollars of "special aid and incentives" to all cities with a population of one million or more, and specifies that the "special aid and incentives' for municipalities to the city of New York shall be appropriated and paid to the New York City Transit Authority, beginning April 1, 2014 and each fiscal year thereafter (Sec. 4).

• Prohibits the transfer of moneys from the Metropolitan Mass Transportation Operating Assistance Account and Public Transportation Systems Operating Assistance Account toward the State Fund or any other general fund or account that is not for the purpose of supporting the transit systems (Sec. 5).

• Appropriates 1 cent per gallon of the funds collected from the sales tax on gasoline and diesel toward the Metropolitan Mass Transportation Operating Assistance Account and the Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund (Sec. 6).

Full Bill Text