Free and open to the public, it will be held on the grounds of the Alice Austen House Museum, 2 Hylan Blvd., from 1 to 4 p.m.

There will be free food, music and dance performances.

During an awards ceremony, Ms. Malliotakis will honor Staten Island high school students of Hispanic descent for their academic excellence and community service.

"I look forward to celebrating the vibrant heritage, history and culture of the Hispanic community and the many contributions it has made to our city and state," said Ms. Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn).

Ms. Malliotakis is the first person of Hispanic descent to be elected on Staten Island. Her mother, Veralia Zorrilla, was born in Cuba.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — It was an event born of popular demand.

The fledgling Staten Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce staged its first-ever networking session last night at the Manor House Restaurant in Castleton Corners.

Latino business owners, contractors and landscapers were among the 50 or so folks who mingled and forged invaluable connections at a function that organizers said was desperately needed.

The borough's Hispanic community has grown by 51 percent over the past 10 years, according to the 2010 Census, confirming all the anecdotal evidence from Port Richmond and other communities.

That burgeoning growth prompted a group of Latino business professionals to join hands and form the chamber; their hard work paid off in last night's success.

"This validates that the Hispanic population is the fastest-growing ethnicity and the fastest-growing business-owner ethnicity in Staten Island as well as in the city and across the country," said SIHCC Vice President William Mehnert.

The chamber had its impetus last year in a South Shore Rotary golf outing that benefited the Mother-Baby Aids Program for the Dominican Republic. Rotarians Mehnert and Brian Gomez went looking for corresponding Latino organizations with which they might partner but found "zero to none," Gomez said.

Now Gomez serves as treasurer of the chamber, which began operating in February.

SIHCC President/CEO Angel Rosario said the organization will serve as a resource to help build successful local businesses; the focus also will include community outreach, health care and education.

The SIHCC plans to take a leading role in improving the quality of life for the borough's large number of undocumented workers, said Richard Luthmann, head legal counsel.

Many don't know, for example, that they can open a bank account and obtain the health care they need.

"Hopefully, our chamber will be able to do some of the outreach to these [ethnic] groups as well and we can partner with some groups like El Centro that are doing outreach in these communities in order to really go forward and to move the community forward," Luthmann said.

Among last night's attendees/speakers were: Assembly members Matthew Titone and Nicole Malliotakis; Michael Ryan, Democratic candidate for district attorney, and a representative of City Councilwoman Debi Rose.

The Staten Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is located at 2040 Victory Blvd., 10314. For more information, phone 718-664-3632 or email wmehnert@sihcc.org.

Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-HammelFlanked by Assembly members Lou Tobacco and Jane Corwin, East Shore Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis piles ignominy on the payroll tax.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Sal Sottile said he'd love to expand his security company's 300-person workforce by hiring another 50 employees. But he told lawmakers today he has decided to "wait to see what happens first" with an effort to repeal the MTA Payroll Mobility Tax, which bleeds $9,400 from his profits each quarter.

"My workers on Staten Island drive to work," said the president of Sottile Security International, St. George, of the negligible daily benefits they derive from Metropolitan Transportation Authority services.

James Thomson, an associate with Russo, Scamardella & D'Amato, said the West Brighton law firm also has been "hesitant to hire" because of "soak the employer schemes" like the MTA payroll tax, instituted in 2009, which mandates that businesses, schools and not-for-profits shell out 34 cents on every $100 in payroll.

And Xiomara Ayala of the Staten Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce charged that the tax is hurting "the butcher, the baker and the bodega owner," adding: "It is absolutely insane to think we can dig our way out by taxing jobs we are already hemorrhaging."

The three were among those who testified at a public forum in Rosebank organized by Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who, like her five Albany colleagues from the borough, wants to repeal the tax, which generates $1.4 billion annually for the MTA and accounts for 11 percent of the authority's operating budget.

"New York state is full of taxes and regulations that hurt businesses from growing and expanding, but no penalty has such a direct, negative impact as the MTA payroll tax," said Ms. Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn).

Joining her on the panel, billed as an Assembly Republican minority event, were: Assembly members Lou Tobacco (R-South Shore), upstaters Joe Giglio and Jane Corwin — the latter a ranking member of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions — and Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island), who asked to participate.

Among the several dozen Staten Islanders present was a contingent of Catholic school leaders, who pointed to the disparity between public schools, which are reimbursed for the payroll tax, and parochial and independent schools, which are not.

Monsignor Peter Finn, co-regional vicar for Staten Island, called the tax "basically un-American," and said lawmakers need to "stand up and be counted" on the issue, adding, "We'll pray for the MTA."

Sister Anita Gramer, the president of St. John Villa Academy, called the levy a "great unjustice," and Patricia Gabriel, president of the Federation of Catholic Teachers, said the reimbursement inequity "goes beyond stupid" to "discriminatory."

Ditto, said Barbara Bortle-Gainey, president of the Staten Island Federation of Catholic School Parents, adding that it was "unjust and unfair."

Cusick noted there are bills pending in the Assembly to extend reimbursements to parochial and independent schools.

Members of the not-for-profit community also testified, including Randie Vitucci, human resources director at the Jewish Community Center, which spent $28,000 on the MTA payroll tax last year alone.

Fern Zagor, executive vice president of the Staten Island Mental Health Society, said the $30,000 her organization spends annually on the tax "could and should be used to serve Staten Island children and their families."

Meals on Wheels president Joseph Tornello equated the MTA payroll hit his group takes to the amount it costs to feed 10 recipients twice daily for a year.

Joe Valentin, vice president of the Staten Island Taxpayers Association, who has instituted a "boycott the MTA" campaign by urging Islanders to shop locally, called the governors of New York and New Jersey "idiots" and "pathetic" for backing the tax.

Were the tax repealed, said Ms. Malliotakis, the MTA could make up the shortfall by selling off real estate, streamlining bloated executive salaries and renegotiating vendor contracts.

Ms. Corwin said that when the tax was first voted on, it was called the "MTA Bailout Bill."

Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-HammelFlanked by Assembly members Lou Tobacco and Jane Corwin, East Shore Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis piles ignominy on the payroll tax.