Adam Lipson's company, Network & Security Technologies, calls Pearl River its home, but his employees can work from just about anywhere.
That is one reason four of his 17 employees live in New York and why the reduction of the MTA Payroll Tax this past week makes a difference in future hiring.
"We make decisions based on cost of work force, where we want to have people and where our clients want us," Lipson said. "This will make it much more attractive for us to hire New York State employees. It is desirable to have our people in New York where we are headquartered. Where it is difficult, where it is onerous for us to have employees, and expensive, we tend to avoid hiring people."
State Senator David Carlucci (D-New City) visited Lipson to discuss the vote by the state legislature to eliminate or reduce the MTA payroll tax for small business owners.
"We need more Adam Lipsons in our economy," Carlucci said. "That's what is going to turn around our economy. When you hear from the business-owner's mouth that (the MTA payroll tax) is another reason we would hire someone in another state or region or country, taxes like this are killing the economy."
According to Carlucci, over 700,000 entities will no longer have to pay the MTA payroll tax. He is in favor of eliminating the tax entirely, but said that this was the compromise the legislature settled upon.
"The MTA payroll tax is a job-killing tax, one of the worst pieces of legislation that has passed through the legislature," Carlucci said. "One of the main reasons I ran for the state senate was so we could repeal this job-killing tax. It is a perfect example of New York doing the wrong thing. We always talk about supporting small businesses. We always talk about putting people to work, then we do the opposite with the MTA payroll tax."
Private schools will also now be exempted from the tax. Public schools, which had to pay it and wait for reimbursement, will also now be exempt.
One way it helps them, and small businesses, is to eliminate the administrative costs of dealing with the tax.
"This legislation makes it more affordable for me to operate my business here in Rockland County," Lipson said. "In this economy, every little bit helps. I want to thank Senator Carlucci for fighting for businesses like my own."
The MTA payroll tax currently generates $1.4 billion for the MTA.
"This is not a sustainable source of revenue," Carlucci said. "The MTA can talk about its budget all they want, and the money they need. We can debate that. But the bottom line is, if you need one and a half billion dollars, this is not the way to do it. It's costing us jobs and it's costing us revenue. In the end, we are actually going to make less revenue."
