The Westchester County executive is pushing a proposal to bring in new revenue. In a move to combat a limited SALT deduction and a winnowing fund reserve, the new funding stream would not raise property taxes.
Democratic Westchester County Executive George Latimer says he is not trying to sound alarmist.
“If we do not get additional steady forms of revenue outside of property tax revenue, this county government will go under and, in due time, so will the municipal governments,” Latimer says.
To right the sinking revenue ship, Latimer says a solution lies in raising the county’s sales tax by 1 percent to 8 3/8 percent.
“We are saying that that transaction, the sales transaction, is a more fair way to fund the programs of the county government than going back to the property taxpayers to generate more money through property taxes,” says Latimer.
Westchester County has the highest property taxes in the nation. Latimer says the 1 percent sales-tax increase would bring the rate in line with nearby Putnam and Rockland Counties, as well as cities within Westchester that already have sales tax rates higher than 8 percent and which would not see the rate increased under the plan — Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains and Yonkers.
“We need this like we’re breathing air,” Latimer says. “And I’m not going to accept any pushback when people say there’s another path.”
Latimer says the additional 1 percent in sales tax is estimated to bring in about $140 million a year in new revenue, 20 percent of which would be shared with local municipalities and 10 percent with the school districts. Of the 70 percent that the county would collect, Latimer says a priority will be on rebuilding the county’s reserve fund, with a goal of growing it back to $150 million, up from the current $70 million. Republican Warren Lucas is town supervisor of North Salem.
“There’s very few place to get money from, right? It’s real estate taxes, it’s fees and it’s some type of consumption tax,” Lucas says. “And, as the county exec laid out, municipalities like towns are not allowed to go forward and do that in sales tax. And so for him to actually put this together for the county to think of the towns and municipalities is really phenomenal and very, very much appreciated.”
Democrat Gina Picanich is mayor of Mount Kisco. She praises the plan that would generate recurring revenue for municipalities to help them hold the line on property taxes.
“And so I think a key message here is to those up in Albany — we need your support. We need for you to give Westchester the leeway that it needs to put itself on firm financial footing,” Picanich says. “And we’ve been taking a couple of hits, and so we need support from Albany.”
She underscored that the plan has bipartisan support from a number of the Westchester town supervisors and village mayors. Again, Latimer:
“We are looking for the support of our state delegation to advocate for this,” Latimer says. “We are looking for the governor and both houses of the legislature to agree to put this in the budget to be adopted on March 31 in Albany.”
Latimer, a former state senator, says there have been discussions with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget director and other executive staff members as well as state lawmakers in both chambers. He cites no outright support, but chalks this up to the give-and-take of the budget process.
“And we’re not asking for $0.10 from the state, we’re asking for authority,” says Latimer.
He says the Taxpayer Protection Act would allow for freezing property taxes for the next two fiscal years, 2020 and 2021. It could also help combat the loss of much of the federal state and local tax deduction, or SALT.
“Westchester is ground zero for the impact on SALT,” Latimer says.
SALT was curtailed by federal tax legislation President Trump signed in December 2017, placing a $10,000 limit on the SALT deduction. The president has indicated he is revisiting the issue amid pressure from blue state governors like New York’s Cuomo.
