Republican Erie County legislators are proposing capping the county gas tax again.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Republican legislators are proposing changing how Erie County’s sales tax on gas is calculated so it would only apply to the first $2 every gallon costs, and it would be capped like it was in 2022.
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Right now, the county sales tax on gas is 4.75 percent, so the amount you pay changes based on the price of gas.
The debate Thursday got pretty heated. There was a lot of arguing over data sets.
Republicans say the change would save drivers money, especially people who don’t make a lot of money. But the county budget director said based on the data he has, this wouldn’t be the case.
“I generally think that the idea here is laudable, it’s just that is not how sales tax is collected. It is not something that is collected at the point of sale at the pump. It is something that is paid by the gas station operator on the wholesale retail price of gasoline, and then they factor in what they paid for sales tax into the retail price,” said Mark Cornell, Erie County budget director.
The budget director said this would also potentially take millions of dollars away from local municipalities and school districts.
“The tax impacts, the greatest impact is on the people with the less amount of money because nobody survives in this county without a car. And nobody survives without buying gas. And if I make a half a million dollars a year, what’s a hundred dollars of tax for me, $200 of tax for me? If I make $25,000 a year, it’s the beginning and end of my life,” said Carl Hasselback, a gas station owner.
The proposal was tabled, which means it could come up for discussion again in the future.