MTA Payroll Tax Proposal Taxes Employment

The notion of a payroll tax on employers in New York City and seven other counties has become entrenched in financing proposals for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).  It would be levied against each $100 in payroll paid out by employers.  (Non New Yorkers need to know that MTA operates buses, subways and commuter trains).  

It should be obvious that payroll taxes discourage pay raises or new hiring. It is bizarre that such a notion be proposed in today's recessionary environment.   It will increase the costs of doing business in New York. 

Few Americans know that Herbert Hoover did not follow nor believe in a policy of laissez-faire.  Hoover increased taxes, spending and debt to meet the Depression.  See Murray N. Rothbard, America's Great Depression, which I have discussed on Ground Report. 

The MTA's proposal would foster unemployment.  It should be defeated.  -30-

About the author: Richard Cooper is an international trade executive with a manufacturing firm on Long Island, New York, USA. He received a degree in history from Columbia College of Columbia University.  At Columbia, he studied public finance with C. Lowell Harriss.

Cooper is active in the Libertarian Party on eminent domain and other issues. He was chair of the Libertarian Party of New York www.ny.lp.org In 2008, he ran unsuccessfully as a Ron Paul delegate in the New York Republican primary.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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