Posted at: 08/31/2009 9:26 AM | WHEC.com
Updated at: 08/31/2009 12:23 PM

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Ontario County sales tax goes up

From our news partners at the Messenger Post Newspapers

Canandaigua, N.Y. - As of Sept. 1, the Ontario County sales tax rate will be 7.5 percent, or 7 and a half cents on every dollar.

The county Board of Supervisors passed a resolution with a 16-5 vote last night that increased the rate from 7.125 percent.

Charlie Evangelista, D-city of Geneva, and Don Jensen, R-Seneca, voted against the increase.
Richard Calabrese, R-Gorham, John Champlin, D-West Bloomfield, and Norman Teed, D-Phelps, were absent, meaning their votes went against the resolution.

The increase is needed, county lawmakers say, to help pay for a six-year, $161 million capital improvement plan that includes renovations to county facilities, roads and Finger Lakes Community College.

The renovations to FLCC - which include approximately $69 million for a new student services center and new classrooms at the college's current facility at the Hopewell campus - are exactly why Evangelista opposed the increase.

"We really are in my opinion asking the public to sacrifice," he said. "I certainly can't support an increase in the sales tax especially since it is essentially dedicated to this particular project."

Jensen agreed, saying the size of the FLCC projects and the current economic conditions forced him to vote no.

County lawmakers believe the increase will generate approximately an additional $7 million each year in revenue.

The county sent the sales-tax increase legislation to New York state July 10, 2008, and didn't receive approval until Thursday morning.

Most of Ontario's neighboring counties - Livingston, Monroe, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne and Yates - have an 8 percent sales tax.

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