Today, staff writer Khurram Saeed takes a closer look at Rockland lawmakers’ threat (again) to drop out of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. (See story here.) In the past, Rockland has made noise about pulling out of the MTA and seen a boost in service for their saber-rattling.

Why does Rockland want out? The county’s leaders have long felt “dissed” by the MTA. Rockland, Orange, Dutchess and Putnam are known as “quarter pounders,” because collectively they have one vote on the 12-county/17-member board. And, Rockland puts in way more money than it gets back in services from MTA the agency’s 2005 figures show that the  county contributes $40 million more (in taxes and fees) than it gets in services from the agency. The big insult, though, is MTA’s added a 34-cent-per-$100 payroll tax on all businesses in the MTA service area. That’s the impetus for the current threats by Rockland to abandon the MTA.

If the so-called “mobility tax” is fueling the latest talk of pullout out of the MTA, then any talk to get Rockland to stay should focus on fixing that.

Since Rockland only gets a quarter of a vote, how about Rockland and the other quarter-pounder counties have their mobility tax lowered to (drumroll) a quarter? Yes, 25 cents per $100 of payroll, not even a quarter of the 34 cents the rest of the region pays. Under earlier proposals for the mobility tax, Dutchess, Putnam and Orange county employers would have paid 25 cents per $100, so there’s an actual historical basis for this.

Other “gives” by MTA that Rockland officials have floated include MTA returning its portion of sales and mortgage taxes to the county. But, doesn’t it make more sense to give employers the break? Helping them helps the county become a more attractive environment for business growth. Those businesses attract residents, who buy homes and buy stuff, boosting the county coffers.

The quarter pounders have to share a vote, and don’t get the level of service that the five boroughs, Westchester and Long Island see from MTA, officials have said (though Rockland and Orange counties are the only two that suffer the “value gap” of contributing more than the counties get in services.) Examining the mobility tax in relation to the voting power of the county, rather than the service level (which fluctuates) makes sense.