Yonkers Loses Millions in Sales Tax Revenue, and Almost Nobody Knows It
There's a pot of money that belongs to Yonkers residents, and it has been kept from us for years while most people have no idea it's even happening.
Watch the full video here: Yonkers LOSES Millions in Sales Tax! Time to FIGHT BACK! #shorts
Westchester County collects an 8.375% sales tax on nearly everything you buy. The county then runs a program that shares a portion of that revenue back to municipalities, specifically to help ease the local tax burden in each town and village. Every town and village in the county gets a share back, except for four: Yonkers, Mount Vernon, White Plains, and New Rochelle. Those happen to be the four largest cities in Westchester, the ones with the most working-class residents and the most need, and they're specifically carved out of the sharing formula.
Here's what that actually costs us. That shared revenue helps other municipalities keep their local property taxes lower than they otherwise would be. Yonkers doesn't get that relief. So, Yonkers residents pay into the county sales tax system on every single purchase, every transaction, and we don't see the same benefit flowing back that smaller towns do.
Meanwhile, we already carry the number one highest property tax burden in the entire nation on a county level. We're paying the most into the system and getting less back than nearly every small town in Westchester.
Here's what I'll do about it. As your county legislator, I will fight to get Yonkers included in the sales tax revenue sharing formula. This isn't a complicated fiscal problem that requires some elaborate solution. It's a political choice, one that has been made against Yonkers residents for years by people who didn't have to answer to us for it. That ends with new representation.
Did you know about this? Most people don't.
Dan D'Amico is running for Westchester County Legislature, District 16, representing Yonkers.
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