CNYCentral.com has learned the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County have reached a tentative compromise on how to split sales tax revenue. Several lawmakers were still being told of the deal on Monday night, though it was believed that there were enough votes in the Syracuse Common Council and Onondaga County Legislature to pass the plan.
Currently Onondaga County is the second most generous county in the state when it comes to sharing sales tax revenue with towns and villages. Monroe County near Rochester is the only one that gives more - but Onondaga county's generous status might be ending. Onondaga County Legislature Majority Leader Richard Lesniak says that sales tax revenue has gone down during the economic downturn and everyone needs to be prepared for less.
"It's less sales tax so everybody's going to get less - it's how you disperse less," said Lesniak.
Lesniak say members of the County Legislature and Syracuse Common Council were in meetings and discussions all weekend about a compromise between the two major competing plans competing plans. Syracuse mayor Stephanie Miner's spokesperson said tonight that the Mayor and the Onondaga County Executive have also been involved in the discussions. Both Lesniak and the Mayor's office hoped the County Legislature would adopt a plan Tuesday afternoon.
"Now it's kind of crunching the numbers, getting it out to everybody and seeing if there's support for the kind of package we put together," said Lesniak
Two of the key points in the talks were a consistent system for county tax rates and making sure the city gets enough money so the mayor doesn't pre-empt the deal and go with a city sales tax. Lesniak described the talks as fluid but very productive.
"What we're trying to do is meld something together that is a piece of everybody's," said Lesniak. "That's probably the best compromise. You know what they say - they best deal is the one nobody's happy with."
Multiple lawmakers said it is possible that details of the compromise could still be worked out right up until the County Legislature meets at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon but were confident the essentials of a compromise had been reached.
