EDITORIAL: Sales tax is the answer

August 27, 2008 10:51 am

— Essex County is entertaining the idea of increasing its sales tax. As distasteful a proposition as that is, it beats by a mile any of the apparent alternatives.
Essex County currently collects 7-3/4 percent on purchases made within the county. It sends 4 percent of that to the state, as all counties do. It is a state sales tax, after all.
Essex County keeps the rest, unlike most counties in the state. Only 11 of the 63 counties keep the entire sum; the rest keep some and divide the rest among municipalities.
Essex County is talking now about raising the tax to 8-1/4 percent and splitting the new half percent down the middle, keeping half and giving the rest to the towns. This is likely to be popular on the Board of Supervisors, as the members are the 18 town supervisors in the county. They could thus help both their towns and their county by infusing a new quarter percent into each budget. The total new take is expected to be $3 million, which couldn't come at a better time.
Advocates of less government -- or, in the extreme, no government at all -- are going to say no new tax is good, and, to an extent, they're right.
But consider that New York state is facing a multi-billion-dollar deficit, which will have to be made up somewhere. Very likely, local taxpayers are going to be the targets.
Shrinking state revenues are going to eventually mean lost state aid for localities in a variety of forms and amounts. Those revenues are also going to have to be made up by local taxes, or else services are going to disappear.
Common sense says that the broader the group of contributors, the easier it is on each one. If the supervisors simply raised property taxes, only landowners (and very likely their tenants) would be pinched. That's unfair and unavailing, when considering the sums that might be needed to shore up all the other expected losses.
Instead, why not coax some outsiders into contributing and make the burden on local residents a little lighter? Everybody who comes into Essex County and buys anything will be adding to the treasury, thus relieving the local pain by that much.
A slightly higher sales tax isn't going to chase anyone to a neighboring county, as they're all in the same leaky boat, and, if they haven't already approved a higher tax, they soon will. Merchant competition, therefore, is not a factor.
We remain sympathetic with those conservatives and anti-government proponents who decry any new or increased taxes. But these are difficult times. Certainly, all services should be examined and re-justified. But it is inescapable that revenues are going to have to be increased.
The real question is, do you want help with that grim duty, or do you want to pay by yourself?