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MAYVILLE – A push to provide a gas tax relief in Chautauqua County took a step forward Monday, with local lawmakers diving deeper into the issue.
The Chautauqua County Legislature’s Administrative Services Committee discussed a push by the local Democratic Caucus to reduce the county’s gas tax.
In New York’s recently passed state budget, eight cents per gallon from the motor fuel tax and eight cents per gallon from the state sales tax were removed.
Legislation passed at the state level also allows localities to remove the counties’ share of the tax.
However in Chautauqua County, officials are eyeing a fixed rate, instead of a fixed percentage, as County Attorney Stephen Abdella explains.
“Instead of doing a fixed percentage rate, instead fix a certain amount per gallon, similar to what the state does,” explained Abdella. “What it comes out to be for us, is we could fix it at eight cents a gallon. We could fix it at twelve cents a gallon, or we could fix it at sixteen cents a gallon”.
Skyrocketing prices have let off a bit over the past month in Chautauqua County. In March at this time the average price at the pump was $4.33 per gallon, as of Tuesday, prices are now down to $4.16 a gallon, a 17-cent drop.
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