A new sales tax-sharing formula tops Ray Walter's plan to "make a stronger Erie County". Walter, the Republican candidate for County Executive, says the suburbs would benefit because his plan divides sales tax based on population.Walter says if elected, he will push for modernizing the 40-year-old sales tax revenue sharing formula. He says currently, 10 percent is "taken off the top" for the cities of Buffalo, Lackawanna and Tonawanda. Walter says he would divide the 10 percent equally among all municipalities and half would go to school districts.
"Is it fair, that Erie County cities get twice the amount, per person, from the sales tax, compared to the towns? Of course not," Walter said at a Tuesday morning news conference.
But incumbent County Executive Mark Poloncarz says Albany funnels the local sales tax through the control boards to ensure the county's and the city of Buffalo's bonds get paid off.
"Considering they passed a law in 2004 that says we can not change this on our own as long as the bonds are existing for the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, we can't change it. It's as simple as that," Poloncarz said.
Poloncarz says he is "surprised" that Walter, who is a lawyer and a state Assemblyman, is "not aware of the law."
Walter issued the following response to Poloncarz's response late Tuesday:
"Mark Poloncarz is right, he can't negotiate a new agreement, but I can and will. What he doesn't understand is the County holds all of the cards in this negotiation. The cities can only pre-empt half of the sales tax collected within their borders. That sum would be even less than they would get under my Fair Share Plan. This also has no bearing on the control board and their bonds. Once again, Mark Poloncarz shows us he is stuck in 1977. It's time for new leadership."