No Country For Sane Men: News That Matters - County Sales Tax

News That Matters

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Folks,

A rare action alert from PlanPutnam!

Tomorrow evening (Monday) the Putnam County Legislature will vote on a bill requesting that one of the two *extra* sales taxes we pay on purchases be extended for another term. This legislation, if passed, asks the State Legislature for their necessary approval which is almost always granted as a Home Rule issue.

Contact your county Legislator - tomorrow morning - and let them know that you do *not* want to continue paying an additional amount on everything to support bloated government and runaway spending.

Call them at 845 808-1020 and tell them "No!" and that they should be cutting spending instead.

Here, I'll make it even easier: Click Here to send them an Email.

Background:

Our County Legislature is made up of 8 Republicans and 1 Democrat and didn't the Republicans just run a national campaign on the basis of lower taxes and smaller government? Wouldn't this be the right place for them to start?

Here's what the sales tax rates are in our area:

Putnam - 8.375%
Dutchess - 8.125%
Orange - 8.125%
Sullivan - 8%
Westchester County - 7.375%
New Jersey - 7%
Connecticut - 6%
NY State - 4%

Man, if you want to Shop Putnam you need a gold card!

The legislature passes a bill requesting that Albany approve the extension. Once in Albany a local rep brings it up and gets a bill number and sends the bill back to the county. Then the PC Leg votes to accept the bill and sends their approval back to Albany where the final bill is then voted on.

But there's a problem: The Legislature is not in session.

Governor Paterson has indicated he will call the state legislature back to Albany for an Extraordinary, or Special Session that has a rather fixed agenda that is at the Governors' dictate. The state legislature can only act on what the governor specifies for that session and nothing else. They cannot bring up any issues on their own. Is a sales tax extension for the county one of the agenda items?

And why now when the current extension does not run out for another year?

So, here's what's happening: Greg Ball has pledged not to carry this bill in Albany and we need a State Senator to do so. Steve Katz the Assemblyman from the 99th district won't carry the bill to the Assembly leaving Sandy Galef who will. But with no Senate sponsor it's not going to go anywhere.

So the Legislature is hoping to give Senator Leibell one more chance to increase your taxes in Albany before he leaves office and before the county turns up with an $11 million budget shortfall.

Now, here's what's going to happen:

With Republicans unable to cut the county budget due to, well, whatever the reasons are they cannot cut the county budget, will tell you that unless this is passed they will be forced to pass this $11 million on to your property tax bill thus *saving* you money by not forcing you to pay the additional tax! And, that magically, others from outside the county will flock to shop here saving you the pain.

And if you all clap really loud we can save tinkerbell!

But the truth is this: whether the tax is on sales or on your property it is still a tax and that $11 million can be cut from the budget, most likely without a significant reduction in essential services.

Don't let the Legislature hide behind a property tax increase when they are incapable of cutting the budget!

So far Dan Birmingham and Tony Fusco have indicated they will be voting NO on this request. As of this evening Richie Othmer was leaning in the YES direction but I've been working on him. I have not yet heard back from the others and I did not contact Dini Lobue or Tony Hay for not having their email addresses.

Contact your county Legislator - tomorrow morning - and let them know that you do *not* want to continue paying an additional amount on everything to support bloated government and runaway spending.

Call them at 845 808-1020 and tell them "No!" and that they should be cutting spending instead.

Here, I'll make it even easier: Click Here to send them an Email.

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