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Griffo: Give Counties Flexibility
On Sales Tax Exemption Periods 

           Oneida County Executive Joseph A. Griffo today announced that he is asking the Oneida County Board of Legislators to support his call for increased flexibility for counties that want to extend a sales tax break to their residents.

Last year, New York State repealed an exemption of its 4% of sales tax on all clothing and footwear under $110 with the exception of special sales tax weeks.  Griffo noted that Gov. Pataki’s 2004-2005 state budget calls for four seven-day periods when the state’s 4% sales tax will be eliminated on clothing and footwear costing less than $110. That’s up from two periods in the current state budget year.

In the past, counties that have wanted to match the state offer by dropping their local sales tax have been forced to either sign up for all the exemption periods offered by the state, or for none at all.

“Giving up one month of sales tax receipts is a lot to ask any county to swallow,” Griffo said. “With the demanding financial times faced by our counties, we need to have the flexibility to decide whether we can participate or not on any individual tax exemption period depending upon the fiscal climate.”

            Griffo said that he wants the Board of Legislators to pass a memorializing resolution asking Gov. George Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and the rest of the Legislature, to allow counties flexibility in deciding how best they can participate in the exemption periods.

“The purpose of the exemption is to help the people, and I fully support that intention,” Griffo said. “But if we cannot have the flexibility to participate at a level that makes fiscal sense for each county, either property taxpayers or consumers could be the real losers.”