BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON — The St. Lawrence County legislature’s Finance Committee tabled an agreement for sharing sales tax revenue with the City of Ogdensburg, and passed a separate resolution that ensures towns and villages will keep their current share.

The committee voted on the two measures during their Monday, Dec. 21 meeting.

The proposed deal would keep the current distribution through Dec. 1, 2023. At that time, the city’s would receive the percentile share as towns and villages. The city would also have the option to pre-empt, meaning opt out of the county deal and collect their own sales tax. If they don’t pre-empt, the city would continue to receive sales tax revenue from the county under the same formula as the towns and villages.

The motion to table the new sales tax deal passed 8-7, with mixed support from both parties. Yes votes came from Republicans Joe Lightfoot, Kevin Acres and John Burke, and Democrats Dan Fay, Margaret Haggard, Suzanne Fiacco, Tony Arquiett and Nicole Terminelli. No votes came from Republicans Rita Curran, Bill Sheridan, Harry Smithers, Larry Denesha, Jim Reagen and Dave Forsythe, and Democrat Rick Perkins. The motion to preserve the share for towns and villages unanimously passed. Both bills will have to get a vote in front of the full board to become official.

Ogdensburg City Councilor Dan Skamperele spoke to the board and asked them to support the new agreement.

“We ask you for your support to keep this going. I think it’s better for everybody that we all move forward,” he said. “I think it’s in the best interests of everybody … that we look to each other as partners.”

Legislators who voted against tabling the sales tax agreement to the January Finance Committee meeting said they think the county should help financially struggling Ogdensburg.

“They’re not blowing smoke when they say they’re going to be losing substantially,” Forsythe said. “Do I like this resolution as presented? No, I don’t.” He said that’s because “we don’t know what the city generates” in sales tax revenue.

“I’ve repeatedly warned the board that the problem with this, tampering with the sales tax, divides us and pits our communities against each other. It certainly is dividing this legislature,” Reagen said. “I think it’s important to treat the City of Ogdensburg fairly … rebuild its finances, grow its economy, get our waterfront properties back on the tax roles.”

Lightfoot said he wasn’t comfortable voting on the deal that night because he thinks the board needed “information we don’t have.”

“I don’t see a clear formula for how this is going to be distributed, especially in light that everyone is overlooking when the city pre-empts … the county loses 1.5% of whatever is collected in the City of Ogdensburg. That’s not being taken into consideration,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with holding off on this for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks.”

Ogdensburg and St. Lawrence County have been negotiating the sales tax distribution formula for some time. Both sides recently agreed to keep the formula as is for one year as details on how best to distribute the taxes are hammered out.

The sales tax charged by the county was originally intended to offset state mandated costs, specifically Medicaid. For decades, the county collected 3% on each dollar, while the state collected 4%.

In 2013, St. Lawrence County successfully convinced state lawmakers to collect an extra 1%, increasing total sales tax in the county from 7 to 8%.

St. Lawrence County shares its portion of sales tax revenues with towns and villages although no such requirement exists. The county is, however, obligated to negotiate with the City of Ogdensburg.

The state basically allows for two options. The city and county can agree to a set amount of sales tax sharing, or the city can “pre-empt” and keep the full 4% of sales tax generated within the city limits.

The current sales tax distribution method is not straightforward as the original 3% is calculated differently than the 1% added Dec. 1 2013.

Here’s how it works.

Fifty percent of the first 3 cents collected per dollar goes to the county government. The remainder is split between the city of Ogdensburg, which receives 6.44 percent, and the county’s 32 towns and villages, which split 43.65 percent.

On the additional 1 percent added in 2013, the county collects 83%, the city gets 6.44% and towns and villages split 10.56%.

Ogdensburg’s larger share than municipalities has logic behind it — because of Ogdensburg’s city status, it follows different rules. For instance, the city must make up for school taxes that come up short, and pay for maintenance of its bridges. For towns and villages, the county absorbs those costs.