The Chautauqua County Legislature will consider a proposal to give consumers a break on sales tax for gas at its voting session tonight.
A resolution filed by the four Democrats on the Legislature would set a fixed rate per gallon of 12-cents versus the current percentage of 4%. Concern was raised in both the Administrative Services and Audit & Control Committees about how the change in the tax would affect not just the county’s budget but local municipalities’ budget where sales tax revenue was concerned.
Finance Director Kitty Crow stated at both legislative committee meetings that she estimates the 12-cents per gallon fixed rate would result in the county meeting budgeted sales tax revenue figures for 2022.
County Executive PJ Wendel said the County Legislature instituted a “motor tax fuel holiday” in 2004, but that prices at the pump never actually went down. He said the same could happen this time too, “You should see a 36-cent drop per gallon as of June 1. What happens if you don’t? We have no control over that. The distributors, the retailers, they could say, ‘You’re going to give up the revenue? We’re not!’ An argument could say, ‘You raised your prices!’ ‘No, my prices were the same in June as they were in March. The only difference is my price hasn’t changed. I just didn’t lowered it in compensation for the tax rate reduction that state or county has.'”
The County Legislature’s meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Legislative Chambers of the Gerace Office Building in Mayville. It is open to the public and is available through a livestream as well.
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