Petsas
POUGHKEEPSIE – The chairman of the Poughkeepsie Common Council
Saturday said the city is in its current fiscal crisis because Dutchess
County Executive Marcus Molinaro and the Republican-led county legislature
“have cut the legs out from under the city for years and this fiscal
crisis and budget is the consequence of their policies.”
Petsas’ comments come after Mayor Robert Rolison announced his proposed
2017 city budget that includes a 16.5 percent property tax increase. Petsas
acknowledged the new mayor “inherited a fiscal mess,” but
the chairman said Rolison “needs to get Dutchess County Government
to restore Poughkeepsie’s sales tax revenue.”
He said since the sales tax formula change in 2013, Poughkeepsie taxpayers
have lost close to $6.8 million through the end of 2015 and that number
will grow even larger by the end of this year. “Under the county’s
distribution formula, the City of Poughkeepsie’s sales tax revenue
is down 17 percent since 2012, while the county’s portion is up
11 percent.”
Petsas said since 2012, gross sales tax receipts have gone up six percent,
while the county kept an extra $17 million that would have been distributed
and shared among all of the municipalities. That, he said, resulted in
local distribution being down 12 percent.
“Until Molinaro changes the sales tax agreement with municipalities,
any property tax increase for Poughkeepsie in 2017, is the ‘Molinaro
property tax increase,” Petsas said.
The common council will vote Monday evening calling on Rolison and Molinaro
to re-negotiate the current sales tax formula to “provide greater
aid to the city and all municipalities.”
