County sets sales tax amounts for municipalities with village share shrinking even more
Photo by Tom Rivers: Downtown Albion is shown on Nov. 25, decorated for the holidays. The village will see a slight decrease in the local sales tax share in 2026.
ALBION – The Orleans County Legislature has set the sales tax amounts for the 10 towns and four villages for 2026, and the four villages will see a slight decrease.
Overall, the towns and villages collectively remain at $1,366,671, the same amount they have received since 2001.
Every year the Legislature does a sales tax apportionment. In the years after a census update, the county uses a formula in determining the village share by dividing the village taxable value by the town taxable value.
If a town’s taxable value increases at a higher percentage rate than the village within its borders, then some of that sales tax from the village shifts to the town.
Charts: Orleans Hub with data from Orleans County Legislature.
Next year, $887 collectively from the four villages will go to the towns. That drops the village overall amount to $386,534 while the 10 towns get $980,137.
Many of the town and village officials have asked the County Legislature to increase the sales tax sharing, but the Legislature has declined, saying the county faces its own rising costs.
Sean Pogue, the Barre town supervisor, made the latest plea to the county to increase the sales tax shared with towns and villages. Pogue, speaking during last month’s meeting of the Orleans County Association of Municipalities, asked the legislators to unfreeze the cap to the towns and villages, so those municipalities could see an increase in the sales tax.
The sales tax has risen significantly in recent years. This year, in the first three quarters, the sales tax for the county was up 9.7 percent or about $1.6 million.
The county is on pace to take in about $25 million total this year in sales tax.
Here are the amounts of local sales tax in recent years in Orleans County, according to the state comptroller’s office:
- $23.4 million in 2024
- $23.1 million in 2023
- $22.5 million in 2022
- $21.8 million in 2021
- $19.4 million in 2020
- $17.7 million in 2019
