#Government
Target:
New York State Legislature
Region:
United States of America
Website:
www.humanservicescouncil.org

The Human Services Council of New York City (HSC), representing nearly 170 not-for-profit member organizations is the voice of the human services community of New York City. For nearly twenty years HSC's mission has been to build board recognition and support for the substantial and essential contributions of the not-for-profit human service sector to the citizens and fabric of New York City.

We passionately champion the sector by proactively negotiating with State and City government for mutually beneficial, solutions-based budget, policy, and legislative reform that improve our members' work and the lives of the men, women and children they serve.

In 2009, the NYS Legislature enacted a budget that included a hastily planned Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Mobility Tax aimed at curing the authority's deficit. The MTA tax imposes a 0.34 percent payroll tax on businesses within the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District (MCTD) and does not distinguish between not-for-profits, many of which are funded primarily with public funds, and for-profit businesses.

The MTA tax has had a drastic impact on the human services sector. Unlike for-profit businesses, they do not have profit margins to pay for this additional cost. And now the Governor has proposed increasing that tax, at a time when human service agencies can least afford yet another burden on their already overstretched budgets. These agencies are suffering a loss of private dollars while also enduring numerous program cuts from the State and the City. Yet the demand for services continues to grow during this recession. The consequences of this tax will be a reduction in the amount of funding the human services sector will have to deliver essential services to the public.

HSC urges the NYS Legislature to exempt human service not-for-profits from the MTA mobility payroll tax.

We, the undersigned, call on the NYS Legislature to exempt human service not-for-profits from Governor Paterson's proposed MTA Mobility Payroll Tax.

Taxing not-for-profit human services providers reduces the amount of funding they have to deliver essential services to the public. This tax could not come at a worse time. The on-going economic crisis has had a profoundly negative impact on the human services sector; private and public funding is down while the demand for services continues to grow.

This is not the time to impose another tax on not-for-profits who provide the essential services our most vulnerable populations so desperately need!

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The Exempt Human Service Not-For-Profits From Governor Paterson's MTA Mobility Tax petition to New York State Legislature was written by Diane Frazier and is in the category Government at GoPetition.