Warren County discusses 1% sales tax increase

WARREN COUNTY, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) – The Warren County Board of Supervisors held a workshop meeting on Wednesday to discuss a potential sales tax percentage increase. The sales tax in Warren County has been seven percent for over the past 50 years, and the board is considering a one percent increase.

The meeting was open to the public, and according to some residents, it left them thinking that they may soon be forced to pay an extra cent on everyday items as a result of a sales tax increase. Some local businesses owners are opposed to the proposal and said it will only hurt consumers.

“If you can bring more customers to provide more retail sales, you’re probably better off, than increasing the sales tax rate because that helps balance the budget without hurting poor people,” said Mike Parwana, owner of Chicken Coop Forge.

Parwana is not the only business owner in Warren County who thinks the current sales tax rate of seven percent gives the county an advantage. He said raising it by one percent would be detrimental to business owners. John Peter Garvey IV, owner of Garvey Automotive Group, agrees.

“We see from the local sales tax rolls, that most tax comes from Queensbury, Glens Falls, it doesn’t come from Lake George Village,” Garvey said. “It doesn’t come from tourists, it comes from local people spending money in their community, and our concern is that our tax increase will raise prices, result in less consumer spending, and hurt businesses.”

However, Warren County Administrator John Taflan, says the county is one of three in the state that has the lowest sales tax percentage, and that this means there is room for an increase. He points to the need for improvements in infrastructure and what he calls a failing county and state budget.

“The services we provide to the county is just more and more expensive, so we are under a lot of strain to meet our budget requirements,” Taflan said. “Last year we had to take out $5 million just to match the budget.”

Garvey thinks the board supervisors is not looking at how much added cost per month families will have to pay.

“If there is $25 million of tax increase and there’s 65,000 people, it’s going to be about $375 per person, so for a family of four, over $1000 out of their pocket at a time when they can least afford it,” Garvey said.

The county also pointed out that they have additional costs associated with SUNY Adirondack and its need for a new electrical infrastructure.

“They replaced half of the years ago several years ago they got this year, and they realized that if they didn’t replace it, their dorm was going to lose power, their gyms, and their buildings would lose power so we were putting in an additional $1.4 million towards that,” Taflan said.

Taflan said the next step for the proposal is to keep the conversation going through town hall meetings open to the public taking place in September in both Warren County and Glens Falls.

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