County sets sales tax amounts for towns and villages

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 December 2024 at 1:43 pm

Overall the 10 towns, 4 villages remain at same level since 2001

Charts: Orleans Hub with data from Orleans County Legislature.

ALBION – The Orleans County Legislature has set the sales tax amounts for the 10 towns and four villages for 2025.

Overall, the towns and villages collectively remain at $1,366,671, the same amount they have received since 2001.

But in 2025, there is a slight shift to the villages by $4,014 or $383,407 to $387,421. Most of that increase is for the Village of Albion – up $3,077 to $162,169.

The county uses a formula in determining the village share by dividing the village taxable value by the town taxable value. In Albion, which completed a village and townwide reassessment in 2024, the village assessed value increased a bigger percentage than the towns’, resulting in a slight boost in the local sales tax.

That was also the case in Lyndonville, where Yates and the village completed reassessments in 2024. The village share went up $1,566, while Yates is down by $1,566.

In Holley and Medina, where there weren’t town-wide reassessments in 2024, the village share shrunk – down $530 in Medina and $98 in Holley.

The previous year, Shelby and Ridgeway completed town-wide reassessments that resulted in an $8,114 sales tax shift for Medina in 2024 – from $152,046 to $160,160. But next year it will creep back by $530.

The majority of town and village boards in 2023 passed resolutions asking the County Legislature to increase the sales tax to the municipalities, but the Legislature opted against that in the 2024 budget, citing other rising costs for the county.

The towns and villages didn’t make much noise about the issue in 2024, and Legislature has again kept the sales tax at $1,366,671.

The county takes in about $23 million overall in local sales tax. After big increases in recent years, the sales tax revenue was lagging behind for much of 2024, compared to 2023 levels. The county did see growth in the third quarter and was $150,000 ahead of the 2023 levels after the third quarter.