NEW CITY – Rockland County legislators voted 14-0 Tuesday night to eliminate the residential energy sales tax. The measure next goes to County Executive Ed Day, who has said he supports the tax cut.
The move comes prior to the arrival of colder temperatures and is expected to save taxpayers about $4 million in just the winter months alone, and about $10 million or more annually going forward.
The action fulfills the commitment made by the county legislature and the executive last year when the 2022 county budget was amended, adopted and signed. The residential energy sales tax was put in place in 2012 and was to expire in 2025 after being extended due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Its termination now is the latest effort to bring meaningful tax relief:
- It follows a zero percent county property tax increase for 2022.
- It follows the elimination of the county motor vehicle registration tax in 2022.
- It follows the reduction of the county’s portion of sales tax on motor fuel purchases, capping the tax charged to the first $2 of a gasoline purchase. It is in effect through February of 2023.
The residential energy sales tax is scheduled to end as of December 1. Due to when and how the state collects sales taxes, the county is asking the state to waive the 90-day wait period, which would extend beyond December 1. Otherwise, the tax would continue to be collected until the state’s next tax quarter, which starts March 1, when most of winter’s coldest temperatures are behind us.
The residential energy sales tax applies to all sources of energy, including natural gas, propane and home heating oil, as well as electricity, including electricity used for heat, to keep the lights on. In recent years, it annually brought in about $12 million in revenues that were needed to help county government pay its bills during a fiscal crisis that dates back about a decade.
