CANTON -- The St. Lawrence County legislature has modified the 2019 budget in anticipation of up to $1.35 million more in sales tax revenue for the year.

The board unanimously passed the resolution at their Monday, Dec. 2 meeting.

“The treasurer’s office is projecting to receive more sales tax revenue than budgeted for the fiscal year 2019,” the resolution says.

Because St. Lawrence County shares a portion of its sales tax take with towns, villages and the City of Ogdensburg, the budget change is required in order to pay out the shares.

Sales tax in St. Lawrence County is 8%. The state takes half of that tax and the county collects the other 4%.

As for distribution to the towns, villages and city, the take is broken down using two separate methods.

The county receives 50% of the first 3% of the county’s share. Of the remaining half of the 3%, Ogdensburg gets 6.4% and the remaining 43.6% is divided among town and village governments.

The other 1% of the county’s 4% take is divided differently. The county collects 83.6% of that and Ogdensburg receives 6.4%. The remaining 10% is divided among towns and villages.

Although the villages have no say in how much sales tax they will get from the county, the city of Ogdensburg does have limited bargaining power. An existing contract between the county and the city is near the end of its life and negotiations between the two entities are underway.