Today marks a historical record of sorts for Oneida County, where we live. Our sales tax is now 9.75% on everything except uncooked foods and medical products. I believe it’s the high sales tax rate in the United States. Yep, unlike most states in the union, this includes clothing and footwear, and necessities such as toilet paper and soap.
I often ask Earl why we live here. He replies its because its where his job is and to basically “toughen up cupcake.” I guess I complain too much. But I don’t feel that paying 9.75% in sales tax is fair to the citizens of Oneida County. Surrounding counties have a 7.25 or 8.25% sales tax. In the nationwide scheme of things, that’s still very high. I remember paying 4% sales tax as recently as 1990. Pennsylavnia residents pay 6% sales tax.
I think what ticks me off the most is that county officials made no attempt to curb spending. They wouldn’t consider cutting down staffing, lay offs or anything like that. They didn’t give voters a choice. They just said it was either a higher sales tax or a higher property tax (48% increase!). This is all to cover the increasing cost of Medicaid.
Small wonder people are leaving this area in droves. It’s too expensive to live here! And this sales tax increase hurts EVERYONE, no matter their financial standing. And we’ve just added another reason for new business to look Oneida County over and locate somewhere else.
New York State is a corrupt state and will continue to be. NYS spends tons of money on trivial, unnecessary things. Upstate residents continue to be caught up in one of the worst economies in the nation. I guess I’ll have to “toughen up cupcake” and take my business outside of Oneida County until we find a better solution.
I was once “Empire State Proud”. Sadly, that is no longer the case.
