Dear President Joseph G. Cairo, Eric Harkin, Joseph Bentivegna, and Frank DeStefano, Members of the Nassau OTB Board of Directors, Arthur Walsh Esq. and any and all members of "NROTB Management" as the phrase was used in the September 1, 2020 writing included with the part time payroll of Friday September 4th:
Jackson Leeds wants to continue paying his payroll tax.
Jackson Leeds was not asked by anyone if he wanted his payroll tax deferred.
Upon information and belief formed after speaking with Nassau OTB employees, Jackson Leeds is not the only employee who wants to continue having his payroll tax withheld by his employer, Nassau OTB.
"NROTB Management" has no right to alter tax withholding without consent and direction by the employee liable for the tax.
Nassau OTB's payroll system errors are well known to employees.
Nassau OTB did not impliment the NYS Roth Option of the NYS Deferred Compensation Plan 457(b) because its payroll system could not handle it. As a result OTB employee lost the opportunity to take advantage of the Trump tax cuts and the likelihood of future tax increases.
The burden should not be on Nassau OTB employees to file NY Freedom of Information Law requests to obtain the documents necessary to assert their right to pay taxes without malicious, political and artificial employer impediments.
Teamsters Local 707 represents Nassau OTB employees. Republican Suffolk County Legislator Kevin McCcaffrey is the President of Local 707 which is seeking a pension bailout from the United States.McCaffrey is the Union Trustee of the Local's Pension Fund and negotiates contracts with eg YRC. A bipartisan Committee of the US Congress is investigating YRC's PPP loan. Half of the loan was kicked back to the Teamsters.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/congressional-panel-questions-700-million-loan-to-yrc-worldwide-11595264213
Unlike the Federal Office of Personnel Management Nassau OTB does not have a leave sharing plan that could be used to donate vacation or sick time to fellow employees who have not worked since March 16. Such donations DO NOT have to be repaid.
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/voluntary-leave-transfer-program/
Sincerely yours,
Jackson Leeds
Nassau OTB Cashier
Reference:
https://nypost.com/2020/09/07/nassau-otb-adopts-trumps-payroll-tax-pause/
Nassau OTB adopts Trump’s payroll tax pause
And they’re off — to getting a temporary bump in their take-home pay.
The Nassau County Off-Tracking Betting Corporation has taken up President Trump’s call and is giving workers a pause in paying the 6.2 percentpayroll tax, which funds Social Security.
The move will provide OTB employees more take-home pay in the short term during the COVID-19 pandemic — but they could see less weekly money in early 2021 as they pay back the tax, unless Congress decides to finance the revenue loss, which is very questionable.
Many businesses have declined to implement the payroll tax holiday despite Trump’s Aug. 8 executive order urging the action because of the potential higher tax liability for workers down the road.
The decision by Nassau OTB to embrace the temporary payroll tax relief will certainly raise eyebrows because the county-run bookie’s president, Joseph Cairo, is also chairman of the Nassau County Republican Party.
“It’s just a gimmick because you have to pay the money back,” said OTB cashier Jackson Leeds, who opposes the change.
“And it’s political because Cairo is chairman of the Nassau County Republican Party,” he added.
The Nassau OTB Management’s Sept 1 memo to workers says: “Please be advised that the ‘take home pay’ on your paycheck from now through December 31, 2020 will be higher than usual. This is because President Trump by memorandum of Aug. 8, 2020 has authorized employers to temporarily defer collection of your Social Security payroll tax (6.2%).
“The amounts may eventually be forgiven by Congress but at this time is a deferral only, and should be viewed as a short term interest free loan that must be repaid…Please be aware that this means that the `take home pay’ in your January-April 2021 paychecks will be lower than you currently receive because the regular social security amount will be deducted as well as the payback amount,” the Nassau OTB notice to workers said.
A rep for Nassau OTB, former Sen. Al D’Amato, defended the tax deferral as a good stimulus for the betting agency and its workforce.
“It makes sense. You’re paying people more and you’re not laying off workers,” said D’Amato, whose Park Strategies lobbying firm represents Nassau OTB as a client.
But the US Chamber of Commerce told the White House and congressional leaders last month that many of the nation’s major industries would decline to implement the president’s order to pause collecting the 6.2 percent payroll tax without a subsidy from Congress.
“Under current law, the EO [executive order] creates a substantial tax liability for employees at the end of the deferral period. Without Congressional action to forgive this liability, it threatens to impose serious hardships on employees who will face a large tax bill as a result of deferral,” the chamber said in an Aug. 18 letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“If this were a suspension of the payroll tax so that employees were not forced to pay it back later, implementation would be less challenging. But under a simple deferral, employees would be stuck with a large tax bill in 2021. Many of our members consider it unfair to employees to make a decision that would force a big tax bill on them next year,” the chamber said.
“It would also be unworkable to implement a system where employees make this decision. Therefore, many of our members will likely decline to implement deferral, choosing instead to continue to withhold and remit to the government the payroll taxes required by law. We hope Congress and the Administration come together on a path that supports workers instead of burdening hardworking Americans with a large tax bill next year.”
A spokesman for Nassau OTB said it was the management’s decision to suspend collection of the payroll tax cut after consulting with workers.
Suffolk, Nassau OTB probe ethics conflict
by David Winzelberg
Published: November 24th, 2013
At least one employee of Nassau County Off-Track Betting is questioning whether the head of his employee union, a member-elect of the Suffolk County Legislature, should have a say in Suffolk OTB business.
Teamsters Local 707 President Kevin McCaffery, whose union represents about 200 Nassau OTB workers, was elected earlier this month to serve as a Suffolk legislator representing the 14th District. In a letter last week, Nassau OTB cashier Jackson Leeds alerted the Suffolk County Ethics Board to McCaffery’s possible conflict of interest.
“As a Suffolk County legislator, his duties are to the people of Suffolk County,” Leeds wrote. “He cannot simultaneously represent the interests of employees of Nassau OTB, a Nassau County public benefit corporation.”
McCaffery told LIBN he doesn’t think the two counties’ OTBs are in competition with each other and he doesn’t see his role as union leader for Nassau OTB workers as a conflict with issues surrounding Suffolk OTB.
“If anything, I have the background of dealing with Nassau OTB, which gives me more insight on the subject than any other legislator out there,” McCaffery said.
When asked if the legislator-elect’s union job appeared to be a conflict of interest, Nassau OTB chief Joseph Cairo said, “If you really want to stretch it. But I don’t see anything that’s apparent to me.”
Cairo added that he’ll instruct the Nassau agency’s counsel to review the situation.
Leeds, a 10-year veteran of Nassau OTB, complained that both union officials and county OTB management have been too focused on the 1,000 video lottery terminals planned for each county’s OTB and they’re not paying enough attention to current operations.
“They never worked behind a window,” Leeds told LIBN. “They’re out of touch with the bettors of Nassau County.”
Internet wagering and dwindling handles – the overall money being wagered – have prompted a consolidation in Nassau OTB’s operations in recent years; there were 15 betting offices in Nassau in 2003, and now there are eight. Suffolk OTB, which has seven branch offices, filed for bankruptcy last year.
These days, according to some analysts, OTB offices exist largely for political patronage – another reason, according to Leeds, that the Nassau union chief shouldn’t mix one business with the other.
“Union leaders should not be politicians,” he said. “OTBs are run by politicians. Being political and doing public good aren’t always incompatible, but they often are.”
This isn’t the first time a Long Island legislator’s OTB ties have become an issue.
In May 2000, Gregory Peterson, then-president of the Nassau OTB, sued to prevent Nassau County Leg. Roger Corbin from voting on appointments to the Nassau OTB’s board of directors. Because Corbin was employed as a branch manager for New York City OTB and a member of Teamsters Local 858, which then represented all employees of Nassau OTB, Peterson alleged Corbin’s legislative role posed a conflict of interest.
A New York Supreme Court judge issued an injunction preventing Corbin from voting on OTB appointments, but Corbin appealed and the lower court’s decision was reversed. The Nassau County Board of Ethics also chimed in, determining by a 3-2 vote that voting on OTB appointments didn’t create a conflict because Corbin didn’t influence policy or engage in labor negotiations.
With McCaffery, some observers say it’s best to proceed with caution.
Anthony Figliola, vice president of Uniondale-based government relations firm Empire Government Strategies, said the legislator-elect may want to recuse himself from any votes concerning Suffolk OTB until the Suffolk County Ethics Board offers an opinion.
“OTB is a political football,” Figliola said. “It’s better to stay out of it, especially if you want to get things done in the Legislature.”
David Winzelberg
Reporter
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