The Syracuse Common Council will vote Tuesday on a proposed sales tax-sharing agreement that would give Syracuse tens of millions in additional revenue in the next decade.

Syracuse and Onondaga County currently have a tax sharing agreement in place that will expire in 2020. The 10-year extension, if passed, would provide the city with more than $800 million in sales tax revenue, a quarter of the county’s total revenue.

The agreement would guarantee Syracuse receives sales tax revenue generated by people outside city limits as well as revenue from any good purchased, regardless of where it was bought in the county.

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced the extension in December. The proposal unanimously passed the county legislature on Jan. 2, but the city council also has to vote on the agreement.

In early January, Council President Helen Hudson as well as three councilors — Khalid Bey, Steven Thompson and Susan Boyle — said they believed the proposal would pass, according to Syracuse.com.

“Extending this historic sales tax agreement is simply the right thing to do for our county as a whole,” McMahon said in a December statement.

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At a meeting of the council’s Finance, Taxation and Assessment committee last Wednesday, some city councilors raised objections to passing the extension without being able to review the city’s own tax revenue.

Christine Elliott, director of administration for the mayor’s office, said no data is available for the city’s tax revenue because New York state only has tax data by county, not municipality.

Elliott said renegotiating the deal would be “time-consuming and keep us from doing the other important things that we are trying to do.”

City Auditor Marty Masterpole said at the meeting that the city should wait until it has more data and knows what the state plans to do with Interstate 81 before making a decision.

If the council does not pass the proposal by the end of the month, the county’s approval will be rescinded, Elliott said.

Other business

The council will vote on a restaurant permit for The Halal Guys, an American Halal take-out restaurant chain based in New York City. If the permit is approved, The Halal Guys would be located on the first floor of The Marshall, an eight-story luxury student apartment complex behind Marshall Street.

The city’s clerk office requested a $75,000 grant from a state program to preserve historical marriage records. The funds, if approved by the council, would be used to “improve the accessibility and preservation” of the marriage records, according to the agenda for Tuesday.

Published on January 21, 2019 at 8:22 pm

Contact Casey: casey@dailyorange.com | @caseydarnell_