Sometimes you have to wonder.

The LIA and almost every other business organization downstate opposed the MTA payroll tax on the grounds that it would seriously hurt thousands of small businesses and not-for-profits. A one-third of one percent tax might not sound like much in good times, but in the midst of the Great Recession it literally can mean the difference between staying in business and insolvency. It might be reasonable to argue that there was no practical alternative to a payroll tax, but it is not reasonable to argue that the tax will have no negative effect.

That’s why I found State Senator Brian Foley’s remarks to WLNY-TV last Friday (May 8th) so troubling. Sen. Foley said (and this is a verbatim transcription):

Senator Foley: “Yes, it’s a bit of a payroll tax. Should it cause any business to leave Long Island, or should it cause any business to go under? No, it should not. If it does, then you have to question the business’s fragility to begin with.”

“Fragility?” That’s exactly the point. Thousands of small businesses and not-for-profits are at this very moment in the most fragile condition they have been in for many years, perhaps ever. And we don’t have to question their fragility, we are confronted with it every single day.

I like Sen. Foley very much and I mean him no harm, but that comment made me wonder if he really understands what’s happening in the small business community. In the last five weeks, the State Senate Majority of which Senator Foley is an important part, has raised taxes by over $9 billion, $11billion if you count the elimination of the STAR property tax rebate, and I certainly count it. Billions of those tax increases are falling squarely on small business people, the very people on whom the recovery of our economy depends. The MTA tax was just the latest in the long chain of taxes.

Is it possible that the Senate Majority does not understand the damage those taxes are doing to small businesses? Is it possible that they don’t understand how much more difficult it will be for this state’s economy to recover because they chose the midst of a deep recession as the time to create a record amount of new taxes? Is it possible they really believe that the MTA tax will have no negative effect on the thousands of small businesses and not-for-profits that are desperately struggling to stay alive?

You have to wonder.