As your County Executive, I continue the fight to reduce the tax burden so you can keep more of your hard-earned dollars in your pocket!
Since taking office, we delivered real tax relief that reduced the overall tax burden in the budget for the first time in 25 years, introduced and enacted the largest property tax cut in county history, slashed the tax rate to its lowest level in nearly two decades, and reduced sales tax to make it fairer and less regressive. Over three years, our tax cuts produced over $10 million in real relief for taxpayers – all with little to no new borrowing. That’s in addition to enacting a new property tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.
Here are some of the ways I’ve made our county government spend less, tax less, and work even smarter for you…
Spend Less
- Priority based budgeting. You probably do it at home, and we should do it in county government.
- Vetoed pay raises for politicians- including the county executive*
- In addition to following the state mandated tax cap, we implemented our own administrative controls, requiring offsets and resisted new long-term legacy costs funded by short term savings
- Reviewed, consolidated & centralized county resources and programs to save money and make services more efficient and cost-effective
- Partnered with local governments and other municipalities to revisit opportunities for shared services and reduce cost of services to taxpayers.
Tax Less
- Reigned in county taxes and spending by doing more to right-size county government and deliver essential services more effectively and efficiently
- Eliminated sales tax for three years with an exemption for basic clothing and footwear for all people, including low income & middle class families who are disproportionately affected by this type of regressive tax
- Said NO to new costly tax diversion proposals that would have simply made it easier for others to increase wasteful spending.
- Ensured Real Revenue sharing agreements with town and villages is a collaborative effort that is responsible, sustainable, based on population, and remains restricted for infrastructure and not payroll.
- Introduced a Taxpayer Bill of Rights / Taxpayer Protection Act*
- Any proposed tax rate increases will be discussed in an open and transparent manner
- Any proposed tax rate increases will include extended public comment periods beyond what is required by state law
- Any tax rate increase should be passed with a 60% vote (or supermajority)
When our county government has more money than it needs, give it back to the taxpayers.
On the state level, as your former Assemblyman, I voted against every tax increase proposed by Albany politicians and embraced opportunities to provide genuine tax relief for our hardworking neighbors and families.
I cut income taxes for middle class families by $4 billion (2022-2023 State Budget) and eliminated other regressive taxes from affecting hard working New Yorkers (2022, Chap. 386).
Here are some other ways I fought to reform New York State and right-size government:
- Opposed automatically increasing the budget year after year
- Made the property tax cap permanent
- Sponsored legislation to amend the State Constitution to cap state debt, prohibit “backdoor borrowing” by authorities, and limit debt to capital investments
- Introduced legislation to restrict the executive branch’s reckless abuse of the “Message of Necessity”, and ensure that legislators and the public have appropriate time to review legislative proposals.
*Opposed and vetoed pay raises for all politicians in first year to control spending and ensure labor contracts for public employees were first negotiated and settled. The Legislature submitted pay raises for themselves prior to budget meetings which shielded their salary adjustments from an executive veto. Byrne vetoed all other pay raises for politicians that had been added by the Legislature. The Legislature overrode Byrne’s veto with the minimum 6 votes required, but Byrne still honored his commitment and did not take a raise in pay (2024 Budget). All four union contracts were settled by February 2025
*To date, the Legislature has failed to act on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights proposal introduced at the March 2023 State of the County.