While lawmakers are voicing great displeasure about the effects of payroll taxes on schools and nonprofit groups, retailers say the tax could crush them too.

Preston Turco, the owner of a specialty food store in Yorktown says he figures the MTA bailout plan will cost his business, Turco's, about $15,000 a year - a price tag he says he can't afford.

"Somebody is going to have to pay, and most likely my employees will have cut backs or give backs because you just can't raise prices today," Turco says.

While school districts are expected to get reimbursed for their contributions, lawmakers and school officials say the districts still have to take a hit.

"We're going to have to scratch to come up with about $200,000, to come up with a liability that we haven't even planned for. On the face of it, it's absurd," says Tom Cole, the assistant superintendent of Yorktown schools.Republican lawmakers and school officials gathered Friday to call for an investigation into the MTA and its finances.Meanwhile, the MTA's chief executive, Elliot Sander, resigned from the agency Thursday. MTA officials say the negative reaction to the plan was not the reason for Sander's resignation.