Legislator again tries unsuccessfully to cut a penny from local sales tax

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 29 January 2025 at 11:20 am

Photo by Tom Rivers: County Legislator Don Allport speaks during Tuesday’s County Legislature meeting. He opposed seeking another two-year extension to an extra penny on the local sales tax.

ALBION – Orleans County Legislator Don Allport wants the sales tax to be 7 cents in Orleans County, instead of 8 cents.

Allport said cutting a penny from the sales tax would save people more than $5 million a year on expenses in the county. He thinks those savings would be injected back in the local economy, helping businesses and ultimately leading to even more sales tax revenue.

But none of the other county legislators are willing to take that chance. They worry not having that extra penny in sales tax could lead to a dramatic increase in property taxes or a reduction in local services.

The state gets 4 cents for every taxable sale while the county also receives 4 cents. The county used to get 3 cents, but it was raised to 4 cents on June 1, 1993. The county needs State Legislature’s permission every two years to keep the 4-cent tax.

That permission comes due this year. The County Legislature on Tuesday voted to start the process for the state to renew the sales tax by an extra penny. It would extend the 4-cent local share to Nov. 30, 2027.

The county takes in about $23 million in sales tax a year. That extra penny is worth nearly $6 million.

If the county lost that revenue – $5.75 million – it could translate into a 29.2 percent property tax increase, going from $19,639,000 in the tax levy for 2025 to $25,389,000.

Allport, however, thinks the county would see more sales tax with residents spending more at businesses because they would have more money in their pockets.

“This was supposed to be a temporary tax,” Allport said about the extra penny in 1993.

But those temporary taxes never seem to go away, he said.

“If that $5 million was put back in the local economy the businesses could use it,” Allport said. “The residents could use it. People would put it back in the local economy.”