BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG — Ogdensburg City Council has declared that it will preempt the county on 1.5 percent of sales tax collected in the City of Ogdensburg.

The city got bad news Thursday when a bill that would have raised that amount to 2.5 percent failed to make it out of the state Assembly’s ways and means committee.

In a discussion Monday councilors questioned what went wrong as typically home rule legislation of this nature moves quickly and without resistance as it only impacts the localities involved.

City Councilor Michael Powers said he provided as much information to the speaker's staff as he could to try to help move the bill along but noted that there were many questions.

Deputy Mayor John Rishe said that he hoped the Assembly would recognize the error, which is critical to the 10,000 plus residents of Ogdensburg, and find a way to move it forward.

“I don’t know if it's a blunder or what it is, but I still have the utmost faith that they will get it right,” he said.

The bill was passed in the New York State Senate, but went no further.

City Manager Stephen Jellie estimates that the extra 1 percent would cost the city at least $1 million in revenue.

The move to pre-empt the county was the result of failed negotiations regarding sales tax distribution after county legislators sought to decrease the amount of sales tax Ogdensburg receives from the county.

In New York the state keeps 4 percent of sales tax and counties keep three. However in 2014 facing financial dire straits the county sought home rule legislation to collect an additional 1 percent, bringing the total amount of taxes collected on purchases in St. Lawrence County to 8 percent.

Ogdensburg received a disproportionately higher amount of the sales tax collection under the current formula due to its city status and New York State law that requires the county to negotiate a share with the city, but a deal was never struck. This prompted the city to look at collecting its own taxes instead.

“St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators proposed a new sales tax sharing agreement whereby the city will receive a 50 percent or greater reduction of sales tax collected,” the resolution says. “The City Council of the City of Ogdensburg believes it’s not in the city’s best interest to enter a new agreement with St. Lawrence County but rather to pursue pre-emption and collect its own sales tax, to include the local home rule authority for up to an additional 1 percent in the place of the additional 1 percent the county currently assesses."

According to the resolution the city has the authority to pre-empt the local sales tax which would allow the county to keep 1.5% and the city to keep 1.5 percent.

Jellie said the city will now formally advise the county of its intent.

Although the home rule legislation that would have raised Ogdensburg’s take to 2.5 percent of the amount collected was not approved at the state level, the city will move forward at the lower rate and continue to work with the state to secure the extra percent down the road.