Warren Co. leaders mull sales tax increase

QUEENSBURY | Responding to prevailing inflationary pressures, Warren County supervisors recently resumed their longstanding consideration of whether to increase the local sales tax rate, which for decades has been charged at a rate of 7 percent, while most all of New York's upstate counties are charging 8 percent. Saratoga and Washington counties are the only other counties in New York State that charge a rate of 7 percent, and the latter is pursuing an initiative to raise their rate to 8 percent. Warren County supervisors serving on the county's Finance & Budget Committee discussed raising the sales tax rate to 8 percent at their July 3 meeting. The last time such an increase was proposed and considered by county supervisors was in 2019. As the state's base rate is 4 percent, Warren, Washington and Saratoga counties now receive the remaining 3 percent from their sales tax collections as revenue. The remainder of New York State's counties have a rate of 8 percent or higher, except for Ontario County, which charges 7.5 percent. Considering that the county collected $65 million in sales tax revenue in 2023, if Warren County adopted an 8 percent rate, it would yield a 33 percent increase in the county's sales tax revenue, or an extra $21.6 million or more, half of which would be distributed to local municipalities. Warren County Administrator John Taflan introduced the proposal at the July 3 meeting, citing the county's diminishing financial reserves while local governmental expenses were expected to increase. Taflan said that if the sales tax increase was adopted, the county could potentially lower its property tax rate from 3.84 cents per thousand of assessed valuation to about 3.0 cents per thousand of assessed valuation, an 8.6 percent decrease — while shouldering an expected increase of several million dollars for ever-increasing costs of government operations. "It's going to be tough to make our budget — we're going to make some tough choices this year, and probably some tough choices next year," Taflan said. He noted that the county's financial reserves were only 2.1 million over the minimum recommended, and had decreased $10 million from last year when the county supervisors had to cut $5.9 million from its appropriations. Glens Falls Ward 4 Supervisor Dan Bruno said that the revenue projections associated with the proposed tax increase might be optimistic, as people would drive across the county line into Saratoga County to buy gasoline, decreasing Warren County's potential sales tax collections. Taflan countered that the largest portion of sales tax collections come from sales of vehicles and boats, for which sales tax must be paid in the buyer's home county. With governmental expenses increasing while counties must keep their property tax levies within the tax cap, Taflan said raising the sales tax rate was likely inevitable. "We're going to have to do it at some point," he said. Taflan also noted that a large portion of the county's sales tax was paid by people visiting the county or passing through it, and the local revenue from the tax they pay helps support vital governmental services, so pursuing a sales tax increase that would lower property taxes "might be a reasonable thing to do," he said. Queensbury Supervisor Horicon Supervisor Mike Geraci and Bruno expressed their likely opposition to a 1 percent sales tax increase. Lake George Town Supervisor Vinnie Crocitto and Glens Falls Ward 5 Supervisor Ben Driscoll, however, expressed support for the concept. Crocitto said that when the 4 percent occupancy tax was under consideration many years ago, he and others were shocked and business owners complained, but everyone "adjusted," and now the tax is funding tourism initiatives. "As much as I don't want to see a tax increase, I think it's probably going to happen now or later, and we need it for our budget — so I'd be in favor of it," Crocitto said. The proposed sales tax increase is to be reviewed in an upcoming workshop meeting of the full county Board of Supervisors. County spokesman Don Lehman said July 15 that this meeting had not yet been scheduled.

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Warren Co. leaders mull sales tax increase

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