This spring, it was revealed Orange County had been improperly over-distributing sales tax revenue to municipalities. Left unaddressed, this would have cost our local governments $20 million, just this year.
When the violation was revealed, cities, towns, and villages had already adopted their budgets and were relying on that miscalculated money for necessary services like police, fire, library, and road repair.
As soon as we were made aware of this error, I introduced legislation with our bipartisan state delegation to address the problem. We built support for it and ultimately got it passed through the full Senate and Assembly.
Two weeks ago, it was signed by the Governor. Between the cost of gas and groceries, the last thing our communities needed was to shoulder the burden of skyrocketing property taxes that the county’s faulty accounting would have caused. I’m glad and relieved we were able to fix this error and ensure taxpayers are protected.
James Skoufis
NYS Senator, 42nd District