County Board Approves Sales Tax Extension

By BILL BELLEN
OTSEGO COUNTY

At 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, August 21, the Otsego County Board of Representatives was called to a special meeting by Chairman Edwin Frazier Jr. With representatives receiving notice of the meeting on August 13, the board gathered that morning to approve an extension to the additional local 1 percent sales and use tax in the county.

Otsego County currently maintains a sales and use rate tax of 8 percent—4 percent being state tax and the other 4 percent being local. The additional 1 percent in this resolution is not being added onto existing taxes, but rather is an extension of those already in effect. The base local tax rate for Otsego County is 3 percent, though the county has had an additional 1 percent renewed for years.

Carol McGovern, Otsego County clerk of the Board of Representatives, elaborated:

“Currently, every two years we have to request home rule from New York State to allow Otsego County to collect an additional 1 percent in sales tax,” McGovern wrote in an e-mail. “Once the bills pass the state legislature and are signed by the governor, the county has to adopt the third and final resolution, which was Resolution 295.”

The 1 percent addition that was in effect at the time of the August 21 meeting was set to expire on November 30 of this year. With legislation on all levels completed, the new expiration date has been extended to November 30, 2027.

The special board meeting to pass the final resolution ratifying this extension was brief, lasting a mere three minutes. In attendance were representatives Frazier, Powers, Kennedy, Mickle, McCarty, Martini, Scanlon and Basile; representatives Brockway, Catan, Bliss, Marietta, Wilber, and Mendez were absent.

Standard business procedures, such as committee reports and special presentations, were waived until the regularly scheduled board meeting, to take place on September 3 at 10 a.m.

All members in attendance voted in favor of the tax addition, ratifying the resolution and completing the final step in maintaining the status quo for business in Otsego County.