With less than a week to go until lawmakers must pass a state budget, union members joined environmental and transportation advocates at various New Jersey Transit stations Tuesday morning to gather support among passengers for an additional business tax to subsidize the transit agency. Gov. Phil Murphy proposed a 2.5% “corporate transit fee” on companies earning more than $10 million in annual profits, to help fund NJ Transit.
The proposed fee is “a modest tax on the country’s biggest and most profitable corporations,” said Veronica Cobb, president and business agent of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 819.
“Mass transit moves people,” said David Greaves, financial recording secretary for Local 819. “They get people to work. They get people to school, they get people to shop. They stimulate the economy. Plus, all of our workers need a fair share. We need something that guarantees our jobs and protects the riders as well. We want better equipment, on-time performance.”
Riders are “already overburdened with fare increases inflation, the high cost of living,” said Martin Heraghty, president and business agent of ATU Local 824. “Corporations are making record profits, passing the Corporate Transit Fee is important.”
Business lobbying groups have criticized the fee.
