Late last month, the Washington County Board of Supervisors voted to change the allocation of sales tax revenue to towns in the county.
New York state allocates a portion of sales tax revenue collected in a county back to that county. Counties are free to allocate those funds to individual towns as they see fit.
Under Washington County’s previous policy, the county distributed $1 million dollars to the towns in the county using a formula based on assessed valuation and population.
Last month, the supervisors voted to allocate 7 percent of all total sales tax revenue to the towns. After 2016, the county is no longer guaranteeing $1 million to be split among the towns, just whatever 7 percent is. This could mean more total dollars to Dresden or less, depending on how much sales tax is raised.
In an effort to learn more about this issue, Dresden Supervisor George Gang, explained what the rational of this change was and how he voted.
After a study of other counties throughout the state it was found that Washington County was on the very low end of sales tax distributions to its towns. Some counties were distributing as much as 25 percent. The formula for distribution of the $1 million is based on two factors; 1) town population (50%) and 2) assessed value (50%). Dresden does well on the assessed value portion and poorly on the population portion.
Dresden currently receives approximately $34,000 per year in four installments. In the future distribution this will be 7 percent of the total of all sales tax receipts, using the above 50/50 formula, which means the $1 million is no longer guaranteed.
Receipts have been trending upwards in Washington County even though they have been trending down in the rest of the State. If we were to get the 7 percent distribution this year, Dresden would have received an extra $12,500. Of course, if county receipts go down, we could receive under the $34,000 that we are now guaranteed.
Three towns in Washington County currently pay approximately 25 percent of the total county taxes. (Putnam, Dresden and Fort Ann) This is mostly due to our assessed values. Supervisor Gang voted against the change in distribution because now that the county will be paying out a higher percentage of receipts to the towns, the county will have to find those lost monies from somewhere else. Supervisor Gang’s reasoning is that this will mean that the lost funds to the county will be “made up” from county taxpayers or from fund balances.
The three Towns noted above will end up paying for the largest part of that increase, thus subsidizing the other fourteen towns in the county who would make out very well. If Supervisor Gang had his druthers, he would love the formula to be based solely on assessed values, in which case Dresden would get back a fairer share of the taxes we pay into the county. However, this would never be approved by those other fourteen towns.
To conclude, it always benefits Dresden residents to shop in Washington County. Instead of buying groceries in Glens Falls or Vermont think about buying your groceries in Fort Edward or Kingsbury. (Or for that matter, anywhere in Washington County). Buying a new car? Make sure you get it in Washington County!
