Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said David Paterson’s M.T.A. bailout plan that would use general-fund money to offset a proposed payroll tax on school districts is worth consideration, but could lead down a slippery slope of exemption.
“Our members our concerned about–in both houses–are concerned about the impact on their school districts by having to pay payroll tax,” Silver told reporters after an event at the South Street Seaport announcing free bike rentals. “So the governor suggested, perhaps, in the future school-district funding, we could alleviate that particular problem. It would be about $60 million overall to the city and the surrounding suburbs, the impact on the school districts, and the reality is, well, there are a lot of other worthy causes including villages, towns, not-for-profits, who would be subject to the payroll tax as well, and we might be going down a slippery slope as far as reimbursing people.

Follow Jimmy Vielkind via RSS.