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Ulster County committee advances home rule request to seek income‑surcharge authority after 4–3 vote
Summary
The Ways & Means Committee voted 4–3 to advance a Home Rule request asking the state to allow Ulster County to impose a resident income‑surcharge; members negotiated threshold and rate changes and debated the need for further analysis and public engagement.
The Ulster County Ways & Means Committee voted 4–3 on July 14 to advance a Home Rule request that would allow the county to ask the state for authority to impose a resident income‑surcharge tax.
Majority leadership described the changes the county has requested from the state: raising the individual threshold to $250,000 and the joint filer threshold to $500,000, and increasing the proposed rate to 18.75 percent to offset the smaller population captured. The sponsor also said the resolution clarifies that certain pass‑through entity tax (PTET) income would be excluded from the county surcharge calculation.
Opponents urged more study and public engagement before taking the step. Legislator Donovan (Ways & Means) raised concerns that the committee had not completed independent financial analyses and public outreach, saying a Home Rule request is “the legislature's formal recommendation to the State of New York” and therefore deserves the same scrutiny as a tax proposal itself. Minority Leader Roberts objected to the pace and said members and constituents needed more time to review amendments.
Supporters, including Legislator Grossman, said the Home Rule request does not enact a tax but preserves the option to pursue it after further study; Grossman advocated for guardrails such as sunset provisions and clear trigger rules that would limit when the tax could be implemented.
The committee debate included repeated reminders that advancing the Home Rule request would not immediately create a tax; rather it asks the state to allow the county to consider the surcharge in future decisions. With the 4–3 vote the committee forwarded the Home Rule request to the full legislature; the sponsor and several members emphasized that additional analysis and public engagement would continue before any final vote on a tax.
Next steps: the Home Rule request will go to the full Ulster County Legislature and, if approved, the request would then be sent to the state legislature for consideration. No timetable for those actions was specified in the committee meeting.
