Tioga County Legislature opposes proposed amendment to state budget that impacts AIM funding

On Feb. 15, Governor Cuomo announced a 30-Day Amendment to the 2020 Executive Budget making impacted towns and villages whole from changes to Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) funding by utilizing revenue from county sales tax instead of restoring AIM with State funding. The plan is for counties to make up for lost AIM funding with sales tax revenue. 

This is yet another mandate on our counties. 

Requiring counties to make up for the State’s cut in AIM funding to villages and towns sets an unsustainable precedent and unnecessarily shifts the State’s burden to local taxpayers who already pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation. Currently, nine state mandated programs placed on counties equals more than 90 percent of the typical county property tax levy, and these mandated costs continue to grow. 

Currently, Tioga County shares 26 percent of its sales tax with our towns and villages and last year we paid out over six million dollars in this effort. We work cooperatively with our towns and villages and continue to work on shared services to save taxpayer dollars. Staying at the tax cap is continuing to be a challenge and with this new mandate, it will be even more difficult. 

The County will be submitting a resolution opposing this action at our upcoming March Legislative Meeting. 

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