Brookhaven throws its weight behind transit move

All aboard!  Brookhaven Town has joined the effort to establish a new public transit authority to serve eastern Suffolk County.

Brookhaven’s endorsement of a new public authority to serve the region — to replace of the MTA — came at a press conference convened Friday in Riverhead by State Senator Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) to call for the repeal of the controversial MTA payroll tax and announce introduction of a bill that will allow a referendum on the creation of the Peconic Bay Transportation Authority.

Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko made the announcement near the end of  the press conference, following Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter’s call for the East End towns to renew a push to secede from Suffolk and form Peconic County.  See video.

“I don’t know if I’m going to speak about a county,” Lesko said, referring to Walter’s call for Peconic County, “but I am going to speak about a transportation authority.” Lesko said Brookhaven’s support of a new local transit authority to replace the MTA would “get their attention.”  

“Do they want to lose the 17,000 riders a day that every day use the Ronkonkoma station?” Lesko asked. “So I think it’s an interesting idea to think about Brookhaven joining a Peconic Transporation Authority, and let’s see if the MTA…what their response would be to losing the almost 20,000 riders a day that go through Ronkonkoma.”

LaValle, who had pushed Lesko to join forces with the East End towns, listened intently as the Brookhaven supervisor addressed the press conference, and exchanged a fist-bump with Assemblyman Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor), a long-time proponent of an East End transit system, when Lesko announced his support.

Having Brookhaven on board could give the East End transit plan the traction it needs to move ahead, according to supporters of the plan.
Ronkonkoma, a major transit hub for the Long Island Railroad, is located within the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk’s most populous town with nearly half a million residents.

It was not immediately clear whether LaValle and Thiele would amend their bills to include the Brookhaven Town in the nonbinding referendum on a new transportation authority.

LaValle called Friday’s press conference to announce the bills authorizing the referendum, and allow local leaders to renew their call for repeal of the controversial MTA payroll tax passed by the State Legislature last May. The tax, 34 cents per $100 of payroll, was generally opposed by suburban legislators, but gained passage in the State Senate when two Democratic senators from Long Island, Nassau’s Craig Johnson and Lesko’s predecessor in Brookhaven Town Hall, former supervisor Brian Foley, were persuaded to vote with NYC Democrats in support of the tax.

The payroll tax, along with other new fees and surcharges on drivers licenses and auto registrations, was supposed to plug the MTA’s operating deficit and avert massive fare hikes and service reductions.  But the crisis worsened as the year wore on, as the state realized it had underestimated the payroll tax revenues by $200 million and the Legislature cut $143 million in MTA funding as part of an emergency deficit reduction plan. Facing a new $400 million deficit, the MTA board voted in December to make the service reductions that had been threatened last spring, including eliminating service on the LIRR Greenport branch.

Local officials charge that the MTA is not accountable to the public for its outrageous spending habits and bloated bureaucracy.

Suffolk County pays the MTA $26 million out of the $50 million in property taxes it collects annually, Legislator Ed Romaine said. “Enough is enough,” Romaine said.