dumba$$2
03-02-2011, 03:13 PM
Look at what Muratore's Political Hack idiot Staff allowed to happen...
Error means Suffolk gas tax break delay
March 2, 2011 by RICK BRAND / rick.brand@newsday.com
Suffolk is offering tax relief on gasoline purchases
Two days after Suffolk County legislators touted a new law capping sales taxes on gasoline over $3 per gallon, lawmakers found the law never took effect.
That's because no one filed the measure with state tax officials in Albany.
Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) Wednesday disclosed what he termed "a technical error" in the legislation.
The county legislature, he added, will pass a corrected version of the bill at a special meeting already planned for Thursday, but the delay could cost county taxpayers collectively about $1 million in savings.
Officials say the new version cannot take effect until June 1 because the state Department of Taxation and Finance said it needs time to develop new tax tables and circulate them to the county's gasoline retailers.
Under the law, which was to be effective Tuesday, anyone who bought gasoline in Suffolk would pay county sales tax only on the first $3 of every gallon. Pumps around the county were to be recalibrated to not charge the 4.25 percent county tax on any amount above that, as prices edge toward $4 a gallon.
"I'm disappointed," said Legis. Thomas Muratore (R-Ronkonkoma). "It was my first real piece of legislation to help the taxpayers."
Muratore said his office was called by the county comptroller's office Tuesday, which had been contacted by state tax officials after reading a newspaper story about the new gas tax cap.
"They said 'we have no record of this,' " Muratore said.
Backers touted the legislation because it was aimed at preventing government from unduly benefiting from a sales tax windfall at a time of escalating gasoline prices while residents are still reeling from the recession.
Lindsay said that the original legislation failed to include routine language directing the measure be filed with the Department of Taxation and Finance. Because the provision was missing, the legislative clerk's office did not send the final legislation to the state.
"There's enough blame to go around," said Lindsay, noting that no one - legislative counsel who drafted the bill, the sponsor, lawmakers who voted on it or the county executive who signed it - ever picked up on the error.
County Executive Steve Levy's office will supply a certificate of necessity to allow a new vote on the gas cap, without having to go through legislative committee.
Error means Suffolk gas tax break delay
March 2, 2011 by RICK BRAND / rick.brand@newsday.com
Suffolk is offering tax relief on gasoline purchases
Two days after Suffolk County legislators touted a new law capping sales taxes on gasoline over $3 per gallon, lawmakers found the law never took effect.
That's because no one filed the measure with state tax officials in Albany.
Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) Wednesday disclosed what he termed "a technical error" in the legislation.
The county legislature, he added, will pass a corrected version of the bill at a special meeting already planned for Thursday, but the delay could cost county taxpayers collectively about $1 million in savings.
Officials say the new version cannot take effect until June 1 because the state Department of Taxation and Finance said it needs time to develop new tax tables and circulate them to the county's gasoline retailers.
Under the law, which was to be effective Tuesday, anyone who bought gasoline in Suffolk would pay county sales tax only on the first $3 of every gallon. Pumps around the county were to be recalibrated to not charge the 4.25 percent county tax on any amount above that, as prices edge toward $4 a gallon.
"I'm disappointed," said Legis. Thomas Muratore (R-Ronkonkoma). "It was my first real piece of legislation to help the taxpayers."
Muratore said his office was called by the county comptroller's office Tuesday, which had been contacted by state tax officials after reading a newspaper story about the new gas tax cap.
"They said 'we have no record of this,' " Muratore said.
Backers touted the legislation because it was aimed at preventing government from unduly benefiting from a sales tax windfall at a time of escalating gasoline prices while residents are still reeling from the recession.
Lindsay said that the original legislation failed to include routine language directing the measure be filed with the Department of Taxation and Finance. Because the provision was missing, the legislative clerk's office did not send the final legislation to the state.
"There's enough blame to go around," said Lindsay, noting that no one - legislative counsel who drafted the bill, the sponsor, lawmakers who voted on it or the county executive who signed it - ever picked up on the error.
County Executive Steve Levy's office will supply a certificate of necessity to allow a new vote on the gas cap, without having to go through legislative committee.