Erie County Lawmakers Look To Cap Gas Tax

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - Erie County legislators are looking to follow the state’s lead and cap the sales tax on gasoline, once it reaches a certain price.

The state has already approved a bill that will cap the tax at 4-percent up to 2-dollars. After 2-dollars, the state will not collect sales tax on gas, beginning June 1.

Republican’s Michael Ranzenhofer and Barry Weinsteind will today call for a local law that mirrors the state one, but Erie County Executive Joel Giambra has already said he does not agree with the idea, and says it would be costly.

You really have to listen to the audio report from Barbara Burns to get a handle on the report.
Giambra says it will put a 7 to 12 million dollar hole in the budget and that is a 3% tax increase. Wait, how can capping the sales tax at $2 a gallon cause this? Last year gas prices were below $2 a gallon and I am sure that they didn’t predict almost $3 a gallon in their projected sales tax revenue in their budget for this year.

So how can this blow a hole in the budget? It can’t unless of course they/he inflated the numbers to reflect more sales tax revenue than would actually come in.. Giambra and the state politicians wouldn’t do that, or would they……..

What about the unexpected salestax revenue from the Sabres games. I have heard this alone will add almost a million dollars into the revenue of the county. Of course that’s not mentioned by Giambra.