Westchester Republicans trying to head off the Spano tax increase
The Republican caucus of the Westchester County Board of Legislators is giving county residents a heads up warning of another potential county tax increase.
Minority Leader George Oros (R/Cortlandt) said, “County Executive Spano lobbied the state Assembly and Senate to pass a bill that would allow Westchester to [quoting the statute] ‘opt by county law to increase the fee for recording, endorsing, indexing and endorsing a certificate on any instrument from five dollars to twenty dollars and, in addition thereto, increase from three dollars to five dollars for each page or portion of a page.’ Governor Paterson signed it into law.”
The legislation “filing fees” was introduced at the last hours of the 2008 regular session and was passed in both houses. County Legislator Jim Maisano (R/New Rochelle) said, “According to state law a bill must mature for three days allowing Assembly members and Senators to study the proposal. This bill did not. Ordinarily you can’t do that. There is State law on the books that declares a bill must mature for three days. Permitting Assembly members and Senators ample time to study the proposal. However, in an emergency the governor can suspend that. As in this case, our Governor Paterson issued a special so-called Message of Necessity, which allows the legislature to suspend that rule.”
County Legislator Gordon A. Burrows said, “This is a tax. And it’s a tax on a very vulnerable part of the Westchester economy’s, real estate market. The Journal News just reported that the median price of a single family home is down more than 12% from this time last year. And volume is down throughout the state. It’s hard enough to sell a home without adding new taxes to the total. This is another step backward for affordable housing, another not so cleverly disguised tax increase the county plans to enter into.”
Board of Legislators Committee on Legislation will have this on the agenda for Monday. Allowing discussion about opting into this so called “county clerk filing fees.” The Minority Caucus is declaring this is yet another “hidden tax” trying to be pushed through the Legislature.