BUFFALO, N.Y. — As we approach the winter heating season and projected higher costs for natural gas and other heating fuels, some Erie County lawmakers are pushing for the elimination of the county's sales tax on those fuel sources.
2 On Your Side originally reported on this proposal last week but now there has been a significant change with natural gas, now added in to the plan by the Legislature Minority Leader Joseph Lorigo. And now there is some response from County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
Specifically, the lawmakers' plan would remove the 4.75 percent Erie County sales tax on residential heat energy sources such as natural gas, propane, electricity, steam, fuel oil, and wood.
This comes after National Fuel projected it would cost the average natural gas customer (that is over 80 percent of regional homes) over a $1,000 to heat their home for this winter season.
Legislator Lorigo said: "Erie County is one of only 16 counties across the state that charges sales tax. New York state hasn't charged sales tax on utilities since 1980. At a time when people are paying more for everything from groceries to gas, and we know that the cost of heating their homes is going to go up significantly this year, we believe it's time for Erie County to eliminate this sales tax on something that's really a necessity."
County Executive Poloncarz said: "While I understand his meaning, it is so fiscally irresponsible. It could immediately cause our budget to be in deficit, which we haven't announced yet, it's coming next week, and would cause such financial harm not only on the county but the other municipalities that it just can't happen."
Poloncarz adds that the county would lose $31 million in annual sales tax revenue and face a $17 million immediate gap in next year's budget.
Lorigo counters that "this is money that would go back into the economy. That would still be spent on some other taxable goods, so there's no way that we would have a $31 million hole in the budget. It's smoke and mirrors, and it's the county executive and his administration trying to again overtax county residents."
2 On Your Side did point out to the county executive that he did help enact a cap on the sales tax for gasoline as a motor fuel. We asked: "You did this with the gasoline tax, regular gasoline tax. Why is this any different if you do have a surplus, knowing that people are really going to see their heating bills go up like $1,000?"
Poloncarz responded: "First off, there's two different years. The money that is in the surplus this year is for 2022. We're talking about the budget going into effect and having the collection of this in 2023, where we're starting from zero. If we were to eliminate this, which has always been something that Erie County has collected, it would cause us to seriously have to consider raising property taxes. Nobody wants to do that."
Lorigo's tax elimination plan may be just bottled up in committee with majority Democrats backing Poloncarz. But Lorigo says he'll push for a full legislature vote with the hope some Democratic lawmakers will understand and agree with his effort for taxpayers.