New York State lawmakers wrapped up their legislative session and left Albany Wednesday night, but something they left undone threatens to blow a hole through Monroe and other Upstate County’s budgets.
The New York State Association of Counties says without an extension of the extra penny sales tax for Upstate counties, it will leave a $1.8 billion revenue gap for 53 county governments. They’d be forced into massive property tax increases to pay their bills.
Because of a dispute over control of the New York City school system, legislators failed to approve the extension. That extra penny for county governments was the state’s temporary solution to keeping county property taxes from getting out of control as the cost of everything went up. It’s been regularly extended for some 30 years now because the legislature refuses to make it permanent, but hasn’t come up with a permanent fix.
Because it became tied to the unrelated fight over mayoral control of New York City Schools, the extension didn’t get done this time. Legislative leaders say they will probably return for a special session later this year to take another lick at the mayoral control issue, and hopefully the extension will be approved at the same time.
In his end-of-session news conference, Governor Andrew Cuomo said essentially “don’t worry about it.” The governor says lawmakers know they have until just before the end of the year to pass the tax extenders, so they’ll get it done before then.