BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County legislators are debating a plan to change the approval process to continue Erie County's 8.75 percent sales tax that we all pay when we buy something.
It is a major revenue source for Erie County government, our local communities and school districts.
With the bleak times of the Red-Green Erie County Budget crisis at County Hall, in 2006 the county's sales tax went up to 8.75 percent to pull in more revenue from sales of new cars, restaurant meals, or even internet sales now. The state gets 4 percent, and the county's 4.75 percent share provided over a billion dollars in 2023, which was then shared among county government, local communities, and school districts.
The county gets over half of that or just $589 million for government operations and the remaining $483 million is shared with a formula for distribution to local governments and school districts.
That extra 1.75 percent of the sales tax added in 2006 is worth about $400 million, which helps make up the revenue for the county's $2.1 billion operating budget.
The two-year reauthorization of the sales tax currently requires a supermajority vote, meaning 1 of 4 Republicans need to join seven majority Democrats.
Republicans say that arrangement helped them to negotiate recent deals with County Executive Mark Poloncarz to lower the property tax levy and suspend the winter months portion of the sales tax charged on home heating fuel. GOP lawmakers also say it forced more discussions on bonding resolutions for how the county accepts debt to finance certain projects.
So now there is a Democratic plan to change that vote for a simple majority, with the claims that taxpayers and other local governments and schools are "held hostage" from getting their share of revenue in a timely way while those negotiations go on.
2 On Your Side asked Legislature Majority Leader and District 7 Democrat Tim Meyers, do you feel the so-called last minute negotiations hold things up?
Meyers: I do. Yes I believe it.
Reporter: And how does that impact voters?
Meyers: Well I just don't think that they see everything that happens behind the scenes.
During the meeting for the legislature's Finance and Management Committee, District 1 Lawmaker and Buffalo Democrat Howard Johnson said, "What is there to negotiate? The people are being held hostage when we make negotiations to extend the sales tax."
Of course, Republicans see things differently. District 6 Legislator Chris Greene said, "It silences the vote, the voice of every voter in Erie County. Right now sales tax extension can be done with a simple majority. It can, however, if you did a simple majority approval, then the taxpayers the voters must approve it. That option is also being removed."
Greene also brought the county executive into the discussion with the claim that Democrats would just rubber stamp his goals.
"We reach out and say it's time to sit down, and he's the one who waits until the last second. It is shameful. You're damn right. We are being held hostage and it's by the County Executive," Greene said.
We asked Democratic Majority Leader Meyers, "Is it true that sometimes things come up from the county executive and maybe they don't get a full vetting from the public?"
Meyers replied, "I don't know about that. I think there's so many things to come over from the County Executive. Of course this is the stand that they're going to take, that it's a rubber stamp for the county executive. What else would we expect from them?"
Channel 2 asked further, "If you're not going to have discussions about things dealing with the budget and negotiating sometimes with the other party, is that wrong?
Meyers responded: "Well, we do have a budget hearings and meetings like that. I'm talking about negotiations. They're not negotiations with me."
A Poloncarz spokesman says Erie County is the only county in the state with this supermajority sales tax extension vote and this is a commonsense approach for the budget process. It is also correct that Erie County and Oneida County are the only two in New York State with the highest sales tax of 8.75 percent.
This issue of a potential change in the sales tax reauthorization could come to a full vote in an upcoming full legislature session.