NYC Unions Reject MTA Congestion Pricing - Call For Ending Stock Transfer Tax Rebate Instead
“We're fixated with using tolls and fees as a stick against the working class and the poor — but just fine with tax exemptions for corporations.” - Bhairavi Desai, president, New York Taxi Workers Alliance.
By Bob Hennelly
A growing coalition of New York City’s unions are speaking out against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s plans to impose a congestion pricing fee on vehicles entering Manhattan with several labor leaders suggesting Albany should instead start collecting the state’s Stock Transfer Tax that it has been rebating back to Wall Street since the early 1980s.
Harry Nespoli, chair of the Municipal Labor Committee and president of the Teamsters Local 831, told Work-Bites the MTA’s plan to raise $1 billion annually by charging $15 per car and $24 to $36 per truck this spring would “destroy” the household finances of the city’s essential and emergency service workers that are required to commute into Manhattan south of 60th Street. “We need people thinking the right way. We need people to step back and take a look at this,” Nespoli said.
The MLC leader expressed support for resuming the collection of the Stock Transaction Tax that has cost Albany $400 billion since the levy was rebated back to investors forty years ago. “Let’s do it and start waking everybody up,” Nespoli said.
Nespoli also told Work-Bites that over three quarters of the 102 unions represented at a recent MLC meeting voted to join in a federal lawsuit opposing the MTA’s proposal filed last month by the United Federation of Teachers and Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella (R). The filing alleges the MTA’s plan was “a regressive and discriminatory pricing scheme that violates Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.”
Fossella and the UFT were joined in the lawsuit by three civil rights organizations and 18 elected officials representing Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Queens, along with Suffolk, Orange, Dutchess, Rockland, Sullivan, Delaware, Otsego, as well as Ulster County. In July, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy filed a similar federal lawsuit arguing federal regulators who approved the MTA’s plan had relied on a “fundamentally flawed and improperly truncated decision-making process" that neglected to study how the diversion of traffic from Manhattan, as a consequence of the congestion charge, would impact the surrounding New Jersey communities environmentally.
“We're confident,” said MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, when asked to comment on the New Jersey lawsuit. “Again, the 4,000-page environmental review that was done over a two-year period and which responded to 70,000 public comments is the most thorough environmental assessment ever done, and we're confident we will prevail. But their goal is to delay congestion pricing.”
"Congestion pricing means cleaner air, better transit and less gridlock on New York City's streets and today's vote by the MTA Board is a critical step forward," Gov. Hochul said back in December when the MTA approved its final proposal.
Last month, UFT President Michael Mulgrew blasted the MTA plan observing that as it was “now constituted, it will only succeed in moving traffic and pollution from one part of the city to another, even as it increases the economic burden on working and middle-class communities."
"As we have said time and time again, congestion pricing is a detriment to those that will be affected by this toll, environmentally and financially, and for people of all walks of life from across the five boroughs and beyond,” Fossella said. “We appreciate the support from elected officials and interested groups, as this fight cannot be won by any one of us alone.”
Uniformed Firefighter Association President Andy Ansbro told Work-Bites his members should be exempted because the FDNY relies on them having access to their personal vehicles to be able to shift to different fire houses in the same shift as required.
“Every day, dozens of firefighters who start off in one firehouse during their tour of duty are then sent to another firehouse in order to compete their tour. Nobody knows where they will be going until they show up for work and they figure out where the shortages are — so the member’s car has always been considered an extension of the department,” Ansbro said. “So, this would put our members in the position of having to pay additional money while they are using their car for the City of New York.
Ansbro added that relying on mass transit would be impractical because of the 70 to 80 pounds of gear firefighters need to carry with them when they are shifted around during their tour.
Back in November, John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union, withdrew in protest from the Traffic Mobility Review Board, which was tasked with implementing the MTA’s congestion pricing. Samuelsen wrote in his resignation letter that the MTA had “failed to meet the moment” by not making ‘transit more frequent, available, and affordable to attract drivers to the transit system right now — before the first toll is even collected.”
“I don’t want to have my name on the report because I am concerned it will become a rubber stamp of the overall congestion pricing ethic,” Samuelsen told THE CITY newspaper at the time. “And the overall congestion pricing ethic is flawed because they have refused to put new service out.”
In an interview with Work-Bites, Samuelsen said that while he wouldn’t want to see Wall Street firms leave on account of a resumption of the Stock Transfer Tax, “we desperately need the revenue for social services on the streets of New York, and we are in dire need of public investment for our subway and bus system. It’s utterly ridiculous we keep rebating back billions to these super wealthy Wall Street banks and investment firms. If you walk down Broadway — right outside their doors we have homeless people and veterans sleeping on cardboard boxes — what a juxtaposition.”
“We're fixated with using tolls and fees as a stick against the working class and the poor — but just fine with tax exemptions for corporations as a carrot where even the crumbs don't trickle down,” wrote Bhairavi Desai, president of the Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents over 20,000 drivers. “The MTA could raise funds through closing the stock transfer tax loophole and control congestion by still limiting trucks to specific hours and restricting private vehicles to specific days based on plate IDs for example. That feels more equitable than a tax on motorists while the wealthy are left with millions to invest in more yachts.”
“You wouldn’t need congestion pricing if you just took that Stock Transfer Tax money,” said Chris Silvera, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 808, which represents Metro North workers and building service workers in multiple locations, including Stuyvesant Town. Silvera likened the MTA’s reliance on borrowing that can cause it to lose as much as 20 percent of its revenue just to pay debt service, to the economics of a third world nation.
“You know what this reminds me of, is how the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank treat developing countries in terms of loans and how much of their GDP is going towards just paying back IMF loans,” Silvera said.
Sponsors of legislation to end the Stock Transfer Tax rebate project it could yield over $14 billion annually. A similar tax has been in effect in London since the 1690s and is on the books in dozens of other countries. Opponents insist reviving the New York State version of the tax would prompt an out migration of investment firms and good paying financial service jobs.
Sen. James Sanders (D-Brooklyn), chair of the Committee on Banks is the lead sponsor on the legislation to end the Stock Transfer Tax rebate. In the Assembly the lead sponsor is Assembly Member Phil Steck (D- Schenectady).
“While I understand concerns about repealing the rebate, the needs of our state are simply too pressing to ignore,” wrote Sanders (D-Brooklyn), chairman of Committee on Banks, in response to a query from Work-Bites. “We can't afford to let crucial infrastructure crumble, our schools struggle, and our communities lack clean water. This bill offers a responsible way to address these challenges. This bill isn't just about raising revenue; it's about investing in New York's future.
“Without ending the stock transfer tax rebate there is no future for truly progressive government on economic issues in New York,” wrote Steck . “The NYS budget will remain a long series of partially funded programs. I do not see how the Governor funds progress with no increase in revenue. People can leave NY to avoid income tax, but if they want to trade securities, all the major markets are in NY, so they have to play here — leaving gets them nowhere.”