I am writing to make my constituents, and all county taxpayers, aware of a resolution that will be acted upon this month that would remove the cap on the gasoline tax - and raise your sales tax on gasoline.

Yes you read that right - with record high gasoline prices wreaking havoc on family budgets throughout the county, some members of your county Legislature feel it is appropriate to add to your sales tax burden and further raise your fuel prices.

I have been told that we are “losing” significant sales tax money with the cap in place. This sounds great, but let's examine the facts. The Cayuga County treasurer has confirmed that 2007 sales tax revenues for county use are estimated to be $18,960,000. This amount, during which the gas tax cap has been in effect, is $1,200,000 higher than 2007. This amount is also $860,000 higher than we actually budgeted for 2007.

So what we have here is a situation where Cayuga County has record sales tax revenues, which are far surpassing our budgeted amounts, and yet the Legislature wants to raise your gasoline taxes so they can increase government spending.

Of further concern to me were comments made during a recent budget meeting by our county manager, the jist of which being that because families are paying so much more for gasoline, they don't have as much money to spend on other things that are taxable.

Therefore he proposes we need to remove the cap on gasoline taxes to make sure consumers pay taxes on as much of their spending as possible.

While I agree that gas prices are decimating family budgets, the solution offered is backwards, and hostile to the taxpayers. Knowing that family budgets are strained to the point of breaking, and that county sales tax revenues are already at record highs, we should be looking at ways to offer further tax relief, as we did by enacting the original cap - not raising gasoline taxes and prices further!

This misguided attempt to raise your gasoline taxes will be acted upon tonight at the Ways and Means Committee meeting, and if passed by that committee it would be voted upon by the full Legislature on Tuesday, Nov. 27.

I strongly encourage you to find out where your legislator stands on this outrageous proposal, and encourage them to vote “No” on raising your gasoline taxes.

David Pappert

Auburn

Pappert is a Cayuga County legislator for District 12