Valley Stream gets share of county sales tax

After village officials initially thought Valley Stream would not get its share of sales tax from the county, the village received nearly $59,000 from Nassau. Officials say they would like to use the money to install security cameras at Village Hall and restore cuts it made to the highway department and personal services. The village board accepted the money at its Oct. 19 meeting.

Michael Fox, the village’s deputy treasurer, said when the village passed its budget in April, officials thought they wouldn’t get any share of the sales tax from the county, so they didn’t include it in the 2009-10 budget. “The county needed to fill its budget gap and we knew there was no guarantee we would get the sales tax,” Fox said.

The Legislature voted in July to give villages a share of the county sales tax revenue, he said, and Valley Stream’s portion was more than $101,000, but $42,000 of that was earmarked for the 2008-09 budget.

Mayor Ed Cahill said he thought that the idea of the village receiving a portion of the county’s sales tax was a “dead issue.”

“It really was a surprise,” Cahill said of getting the money. “With the shortage in the county, I didn’t think there was a chance. It was a welcome addition.”

The village had to cut money from its personal services by reducing payroll for part-time employees to keep taxes down for the 2009-10 fiscal year, Fox said. Some of the sales tax revenue will be used to replenish those cuts. “Basically, it gives us $59,000 of revenue to work with,” Fox said. “The place that we’d like to use it is for personal services and the highway department.”

The deputy treasurer added that the extra money won’t necessarily mean more hirings, but since the village had to cut hours for personal service employees, the revenue will allow the village to restore those hours. Fox noted that he didn’t think the village would get any sales tax from the county, but since the county voted to allocate it to villages, he anticipates receiving it in the future.

The $42,000 in county sales tax revenue the village received for the 2008-09 year, Fox said, will be used to pay for repairs made to the Cochran Place Firehouse. He added that revenue projections for this year are at the norm, and he doesn’t anticipate anything being over budget. “If everything comes through as projected, I don’t foresee any problems with shortfalls,” he said.

Cahill said he would like to see some of the $59,000 used to install security cameras at Village Hall. He noted that with the economy, the village will have to wait and see what happens in the future in regards to villages receiving a portion of the county’s sales tax. “At this point, we’re going to have to take it year by year on the sales tax,” he said. “Looking at the economy, we’ll hope it comes through.”