The average sales tax in the state is 8.25 percent, according to the state Comptroller’s Office. The national average is 5.93 percent.
National average 5.93 percent…. We are above the national average in everything in this state, everything.
Monroe’s sales tax expected to stay 8%
State legislators plan to pass two-year extension this week.
Monroe County won’t be getting a sales tax increase this year, but the sales tax is expected to stay at 8 percent for the next two years.
Before the state Legislature wraps up its session this week, lawmakers plan to adopt an extension of the county’s current sales tax agreement, which gives the state 4 percent and the county 4 percent.
The approval isn’t what county officials had hoped for as they pressed state legislators in recent weeks to raise the sales tax from 8 cents on the dollar to 8.5 cents. The sides couldn’t reach agreement, and now legislators will simply renew the current deal, which expires every two years.
“At a time when we’re fighting for additional revenues, certainly we don’t want to lose any ground,” County Executive Maggie Brooks said of keeping the current agreement.
The deal, approved by the County Legislature last week, calls for continuing the current split of sales tax. The state gets the first 4 cents of all sales tax in New York, with counties deciding how to divvy up the rest. Any local share exceeding 3 cents requires approval of the state Legislature.
So that final 1 cent — bringing the total to 8 cents — is what lawmakers need to approve this year. The current deal expires Dec. 1.
Monroe County has one of the most complex sales tax agreements in the state. Under the Morin-Ryan Agreement of 1985, the model for the current sales tax sharing plan, the city and county get the same amount — estimated at $127 million each in 2008 — and the rest is shared among towns, villages and suburban school districts.
To give the city and the county an equal amount of sales tax revenue, the county gets about 73 percent of the eighth penny and the city gets 18 percent. The school districts get 5 percent, the towns 3 percent and the villages 1 percent.
Talk of raising the sales tax from the current 8 cents to 8.5 cents has been a controversial issue in recent months, with proponents saying local governments need new revenue and critics saying it would force people to shop in other counties and would disproportionately affect the poor.
Democrats in the state Assembly have opposed a sales tax increase, and Mayor Robert Duffy recently came out against it.
The average sales tax in the state is 8.25 percent, according to the state Comptroller’s Office. The national average is 5.93 percent.
Ontario County has a sales tax of 7.125 cents, while Erie County’s is 8.75 cents. The highest in New York is Oneida County at 9 cents.
JSPECTOR@DemocratandChronicle.com
2 users commented in " Monroe’s sales tax expected to stay 8% "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWell, except for population growth (of which ours in nagative) and job growth. In those we’re way consistently below national averages.
Not that I’m in any way implying our high taxes impede population and jobs, of course - as has been explained in the local blogosphere, that’s all a coincidence. Canada proves it somehow.
Anyhow, since they have the same NYS mandates as Erie Co., I wonder why Monroe can manage to keep non-mandated spending in control enough that their sales tax rate is 8.0 percent and at least a fourth of NY counties seem below 8. That might be a good question for Cindy. If she uses the word “Albany” in her answer, I’ll scream. Monroe’s “Albany” is the same as our “Albany”.
In fairness, those counties might have higher county property taxes than Erie, but still I would like to see some data on per-capita non-mandated spending per county to see how Erie compares to other NY counties for that.
If we are higher, I’m sure the explanation from county legislators will be that’s Albany’s fault too for some reason. The whole state is bad for all this, I know, but that doesn’t excuse our locally-controlled non-mandated spending from being higher than necessary and I can’t believe that $100 million or so whatever it is is being spent efficiently and on needs rather than luxuries. That’s what’s disappointed me about you-know-who’s first term. Too much explaining to the taxpayers of why current spending levels are needed - not nearly enough solid no-foolin real proposals to cut where we can cut on our own. A thousand saved here, ten thousand saved here, and it would add up, or at least slow the creeping growth. Doesn’t seem to be of interest to any of the 15 legislators however.
You bring up some very good points and I used to be able to tell you all the vital stats from Monroe County. I will look in my archive pages in my website for them. As I remember they are very close to us in population and have half the county employees. http://www.rusthompson.com/ I have many archive pages and need to go thru them to get my facts straight.
Not one of the current legislators are looking at this issue. It was part of my campaign two years ago.
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