Meeting draws rally by farmers

The Putnam County Legislature took the first step toward lowering its portion of the sales tax rate during a Tuesday (April 1) meeting filled with farmers protesting lawmakers' refusal to add operations to a special district.

Legislators, by a 5-4 vote, approved a request for state legislation to lower the sales tax collected by Putnam from 4 percent to 3.75 percent. The higher rate had been in place since 2007, when the state enacted a law allowing Putnam to increase its sales tax from 3 percent. The law has been extended every two years since, with the most recent extension expiring Nov. 30, 2025.

Consumers in Putnam County pay 8.375 percent sales tax, which includes 4 percent for the state and 0.375 percent for the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District. If Putnam's request is approved by the state, the new tax rate will be 8.125 percent.

County Executive Kevin Byrne and four of the nine legislators, including Nancy Montgomery, who represents Philipstown and part of Putnam Valley, opposed the reduction, which will cause an estimated $5 million reduction in annual revenue for the county. Byrne said the proceeds from sales taxes have funded property-tax reductions and a sales tax exemption for clothing and footwear under $110.

Town and village officials, who have demanded for years that Putnam share sales tax revenue with their governments, also support the higher rate, said Montgomery.

"They're the ones who hold the burden of generating the sales tax," she said. "They're the ones who pick up the garbage; they're the ones who provide and pay for the EMTs who respond to people falling off the mountain or falling on your sidewalk."

Legislator Dan Birmingham, who had initially proposed a reduction to 3.5 percent, said the county's savings, or "unrestricted reserve funds," of $134 million justified giving residents a break. During his first stint as a legislator, from 2004 to 2012, Birmingham supported the 2007 increase to 4 percent to cover county losses attributed to the Great Recession.

Now, Putnam is "sitting on top of the largest fund balance-to-budget ratio this county has ever seen," he said.

In one confusing sequence during the Tuesday meeting, Montgomery voted for the 3.75 percent reduction, proposed a motion to reconsider its approval and argued with Chair Amy Sayegh before being allowed to change her vote to "no." "Robert's Rules say that if you vote yes on a resolution, you can make a motion to reconsider," said Montgomery, explaining her initial vote.

Montgomery also tried to place on the agenda a resolution authorizing the county to share 50 percent of sales tax revenues above the budgeted amount with towns and villages.

Ag district

With farmers standing in solidarity, Montgomery asked her colleagues to suspend the April 30 deadline for applications to the county's Agricultural District while the process undergoes a review. Farms approved for the district gain protection from "unreasonable" local restrictions, and other benefits, under a 1971 state law designed to preserve agriculture.

A vote in August to reject five farmers recommended by the Agriculture & Farmland Protection Board for inclusion not only spurred a lawsuit from Ridge Ranch, a livestock operation in Patterson, but protests by farmers and their advocates. Amid the backlash, Paul Jonke, then chair of the Legislature, removed a Philipstown farmer, Jocelyn Apicello, from the board.

The farmers accuse a faction of the Legislature and Neal Tomann, a Philipstown resident who is the interim Soil & Water District manager, of being hostile to farming, and their complaints led Byrne to convene a roundtable meeting last month.

Before Tuesday's meeting, farmers gathered in the parking lot behind the Historic Courthouse, their vehicles draped with banners - "Save Putnam County Farms" and "Learn More About Ridge Ranch and the Fight for Fair Farming." Inside the courthouse, they lined up to speak, often talking over Sayegh a...