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The Legislature’s budget committee today recommended that the Legislature implement a provision of New York State Tax Law that authorizes the County to apply an additional .25 percent Mortgage Recording Tax for mass transportation services.

Last month, State Tax Law was amended to permit Tompkins County to retain that additional quarter-percent mortgage tax for that purpose, instead of having proceeds from that tax go to the State.

To implement the added Mortgage Recording Tax, the Legislature, as recommended by the committee, would repeal a more than 40-year-old resolution, approved by the Tompkins County Board of Representatives in 1969, that had temporarily suspended imposition of the tax.  The additional quarter-percent tax would specifically be devoted to support of the county’s bus system, Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT).

The committee’s recommendation came by a 4-0 vote, with Legislator Leslyn McBean-Clairborne excused.

County Administrator Joe Mareane told the committee that funding through the Mortgage Recording Tax, expected to generate about $800,000 a year, would provide a stable stream of revenue for TCAT to address capital and operating needs.  He noted that, to provide increased support of that magnitude through the property tax would require about a 2% increase in the tax levy.  The three TCAT partner—the County, City of Ithaca, and Cornell University—will continue to allocate annual operational funding, each currently contributing about $900,000 each year.

Several TCAT officials, board members, and users of the bus system addressed the committee before the vote, thanking the County for its past support and for advancing this funding approach.  Legislator Pam Mackesey, a member of the TCAT board, said the revenue from the mortgage tax, if approved by the full Legislature, will play a key role in preserving the system and meeting community needs, such as through the purchase of buses to shore up TCAT’s aging fleet—buses that used to be acquired through federal member items, which no longer exist.  Budget chair Jim Dennis called the funding approach “definitely an economic development tool.”

Once implemented, the provision would take effect as of December 1 of this year.  It would increase the county’s total Mortgage Recording Tax to 1%.

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