Giambra asks state to allow sales tax hike
By MATTHEW SPINA
News Staff Reporter
10/2/2004
Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra is seeking a sales tax increase while insisting he can't share the $125 million it would raise each year with schools and local governments, including the City of Buffalo.
He met this week with Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga, and State Sen. Dale M. Volker, R-Depew, urging them to win the state permission needed to bring the total sales tax from 8.25 cents to 9.25 cents on the dollar in the nation's highest-taxed state.
By most accounts, Giambra did not get a warm reception. It's a safe bet his sales tax increase won't be in place by March 1, as he wants.
"He hasn't justified any of this to anybody, and my answer to this is no," Tokasz said.
Volker was cool to it, too.