MAYVILLE – The Chautauqua County Legislature will meet Wednesday night and on its agenda is a resolution requesting the state to allow the county to increase its local share of sales tax by .5 percent. According to county executive Vince Horrigan, the increase is the best way to provide property tax relief for residents while also closing a looming $5.7 million shortfall in the 2016 county budget.
Horrigan made his comments while delivering his 2015 State of the County address in February. He said that a large portion of the county’s budget is driven by unfunded mandates from New York State, adding that the county has already done about as much as it can to reduce spending without significantly impacting basic services.
In order to close the gap and avoid an increase in property taxes, Horrigan said the county needs to focus on the sales tax revenue stream. He said that by raising the county’s current total sales tax (7.5 percent) by just .5 percent, it could produce nearly $7.8 million in additional revenue in 2016. That would result in not only filling the multimillion dollar hole, but also providing “real” property tax relief to residents.
Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan.
In order for any sales tax increase to take place, it must be approved by both the state Senate and the Assembly and signed by the governor. That’s easier said than done, considering this is not the first time the county has requested approval for raising the local sales tax rate, only to see it denied by the state legislature However, Horrigan told WRFA following his state of the county that he remains optimistic that despite the negative connotation that comes with increasing taxes in Albany, this time state lawmakers could approve the request.
“It will be challenging, but here’s the positive side – there’s a new speaker. So there’s a new attitude [in Albany],” Horrigan said. “How strong that attitude is, we don’t know. But we’re also linking [the sales tax increase] to a property tax cut and that’s the key. You just can’t raise taxes without some cut somewhere else. And what we’ve seen is we are out of whack. We’re chasing people away because of property taxes.”
Horrigan says that if the state legislature were to grant home rule approval, the increase would take effect in December of this year.
The current sales tax in Chautauqua County does include a clothing tax exemption of up to $100, as well as a home energy exemption. Horrigan says that if the increase were granted, both exemptions would still remain in effect. The county sales tax has remained at 7.5 percent since 2005.
Of the 17 counties in Western New York, only Chautauqua and Ontario counties have a sales tax that is below 8 percent.
Wednesday’s legislature meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in the legislature chambers in Mayville and is open to the public.
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