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Suffolk County Legislator Ed Romaine holds up a list of taxes and fees collected by the MTA. Romaine expressed interest in seceding from the MTA and creating a Peconic Bay Transportation Authority. Photos by Joseph Pinciaro

Riverhead - State, county and local officials fervently gathered on Monday morning to protest the proposed cutback of Long Island Rail Road service to Greenport, a controversial decision announced on Friday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) scheduled to take place this fall.

Convening at Riverhead rail road station - which was, as Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter aptly noted, renovated and subsequently closed by the MTA - the elected officials denounced the MTA as a "bloated bureaucracy," calling for the creation of a transportation authority independent to the East End, promising to pen legislation to counteract Friday's problematic announcement.

Elected officials expressed seceding from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority due to proposed cuts for the Greenport branch of the Long Island Rail Road. "To paraphrase Patrick Henry," said Scott Russell, Southold supervisor, "this is taxation without transportation."

"I'm asking the MTA to look inside themselves and chop from the top," Assemblyman Marc Alessi (D-1) charged, holding up a 42-page packet containing the MTA's 2008 salary schedules. Of the nearly 5,000 employees listed, 611 topped $100,000 in total compensation. In fiscal year 2009, records indicate that payroll, overtime, health benefits, and pension funds accounted for 59.5 percent of the MTA's operating budget.

"I'm meeting tonight with Senator Ken LaValle," Alessi continued, "to work on legislation basically stating that the MTA payroll tax should not apply to any jurisdiction that receives no service. It's the right thing to do. We have a message for the MTA: This move has lit a fire under us."

Taxation Without Transportation!
Scheduled to commence in September, the new terms propose rail service on the Greenport line be reduced solely to weekends during the summer months. Despite this extreme cutback in service - which is expected to save the MTA $991,000 in 2011 - the North Fork would still technically remain part of the transit loop.

The MTA plans to hold public hearings regarding the array of cuts proposed it intends to adopt as a measure to close a $400 million budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year. The hearing location closest to the North Fork is in Flushing, Queens set for March 2.

Proposals from the MTA announced on Friday would eliminate service to Greenport - except for summer weekends - beginning in September.

Several officials suggested seceding from the MTA altogether and creating what Suffolk County Legislator Ed Romaine called a Peconic Bay Transportation Authority. The East End Transportation Council, a local bi-partisan organization devoted to transportation issues in the five East End towns, released a study last September as a "road map" for the possibility of creating such an authority.

Growing Discontent
"Now it's time to pull out the map," said Tom Neely, chairman of the EETC and transportation director for Southampton town, suggested. "And then we can get behind the wheel and see where we want to go."


Mitchell Pally has represented Suffolk County on the 17-member MTA Board since 2005. Pally, who was not in attendance at Monday's rally, noted that he empathized with local opposition to the cost cutting decision, argued that the Greenport line, due to its relatively low ridership and considerable distance from New York City, fit the requirements for reduced services.

"The people at the rally aren't half as frustrated as I am," Pally asserted. "I didn't come on the board to reduce services. I came on board to expand services. But the guidelines for elimination or reduction of services include those services that attract the lowest amount of people and those that cost the railroad the most amount of money. If those are your two criteria, you can understand why the East End is on that list. What is comes down to is, is that the proper criteria? That is the discussion the MTA is going to have over the next couple of months."

End of the Line: According to MTA data, 190 commuters during the week and 160 on weekends would be affected by proposed cuts to Greenport rail service.

Grumblings over the MTA's management has been brewing across the East End. On the South Fork, Bill Schoolman, owner of Hampton Luxury Liner and Classic Coach, filed a lawsuit against the MTA, along with other defendants, challenging the constitutionality of the MTA's payroll tax enacted just last winter which levies $0.33 on every $100 of payroll paid out by businesses in the 12 counties the MTA services. In a nutshell, Schoolman charges the MTA is unduly burdening businesses and taxpayers to cover bloated operational costs while collecting subsidies from the state mortgage tax and surcharges on regional cable and communications bills. “I am outraged that I am forced to subsidize my competitors," Schoolman told area press in December of 2009.

The MTA's economic troubles worsened last year as state funding was drastically pared back by some $143 million and a failed arbitration appeal resulted in $91 million in salary increases.

Despite the MTA's growing shortages, elected officials remain steadfast in their opposition to the reduction in service and commuter tax. "It's about time that the state recognize that there is a New York outside of New York City," Southold Supervisor Scott Russell charged on Monday. "To paraphrase Patrick Henry: 'This is taxation without transportation.'"