By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — With regular gasoline averaging $4.37 a gallon in Buffalo and diesel above $6, the Erie County Legislature’s Republican minority wants the county to stop collecting its full sales tax at the pump. It is the second time this year Republicans have pushed the idea.
The resolution, filed Tuesday for Thursday’s Legislature session, would cap the county’s sales tax on gasoline at the amount owed on $2 a gallon, the caucus said in a news release. If it passes, the cap would take effect Dec. 1 and stay in place until lawmakers lift it, Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported.
Minority Leader John Mills estimated the savings at 12 to 14 cents a gallon. “That’s significant, I think. If you filled your tank up this morning like I did, then you get sticker shock,” he told BTPM.
How the tax works
New York lets counties charge a 3% sales tax and lets Erie County add another 1.75%, for a local rate of 4.75%, the caucus noted. Because it is a percentage, the county collects more per gallon as prices rise. A cap converts it into a fixed amount once the price passes $2.
“We are currently charging 4.75% on a high dollar amount. We all are affected right now with this high dollar amount,” Legislator Frank Todaro said at a news conference Tuesday, according to BTPM. “If it includes your vehicle, or if it’s a commercial truck with the diesel prices at over $6 a gallon, what we are doing is capping that at $2 per gallon.”
Gas prices are unusually high for October. AAA put the statewide average for regular at $4.42 this week, compared with $3.13 a year ago, Finger Lakes Daily News reported. Diesel averaged $6.50 in New York.
The budget argument
Democrats who control the Legislature rejected a similar resolution in June, worried about the hit to sales tax revenue. Legislator Lindsay Lorigo said that concern no longer holds.
“We have budget monitoring reports from the county executive that say sales tax is ahead of pace to where we budgeted for the year,” Ms. Lorigo said, according to BTPM. “We know that we can afford to provide this relief at the pump, and that’s what we’re proposing that we do today.”
Legislator Chris Greene pointed to the county’s last cap. “When it was done successfully during the Biden Administration, we had no negative impact to the revenues of Erie County. No services were lost,” he said, according to BTPM, in a challenge to the county executive.
County Executive Mark Poloncarz answered with a long written statement that blamed what he called “President Trump’s war against Iran” for fuel prices and accused Republicans of doing a favor for gas retailers.
“The last time the County temporarily reduced the gas tax the savings were not passed on to the purchasers but were pocketed by the retailers,” Mr. Poloncarz said. “It is no wonder a major local retailer has donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates for the legislature this year and the Republican legislators are doing his bidding.”
He did not name the retailer. He called the proposal “shrill and empty posturing” timed to the coming election.
The Republicans respond
The minority caucus defended its numbers and its motives in an email to The Buffalo Chronicle from Lynne Dixon, communications director for the Legislature’s Republican minority caucus.
“The savings estimate is a range, because it is based on the sales tax percentage applied to the price per gallon above the $2.00 cap,” Ms. Dixon said. Under a cap, she said, the 4.75% rate would apply only to the first $2 of each gallon, or 9.5 cents, instead of the full price. At about $4.40 a gallon, the full rate comes to about 21 cents.
“That is an immediate savings of 11.5 cents at a fixed price of $4.40,” she said. “Future outlooks show that gas prices will continue to climb, which leads us to estimate in the short term this gas tax cap would save between 12-15 cents per gallon.”
On the budget, the caucus argues the county would not lose out. “It is important to remember that Erie County had a $2.00 cap on the tax on gas and it expired. This measure would renew what was previously in place,” Ms. Dixon said. “During the period the cap was in effect, the County sales tax revenue increased. We anticipate the same would happen again, because the money saved on gas would likely end up back in the economy, helping consumers cover other rising costs.”
The caucus also rejected the county executive’s claim that retailers kept the 2022 savings. “Almost all studies on the matter show 70% or more of the savings from gas tax holidays reach consumers. There is no evidence to show widespread fraud from retailers,” Ms. Dixon said. She said the county’s Bureau of Consumer Protection has testified that it monitors this. “Despite the County Executive’s comments, his own Administration has found no evidence of any retailer gouging or stealing the benefit,” she said. “During the period of the last gas tax holiday, they didn’t issue a single fine.”
As for Mr. Poloncarz’s remark about a retailer’s donations, “Gas retailers have donated to politicians on both sides of the aisle,” Ms. Dixon said. “The County Executive should be careful about making accusations against business owners that his own Division of Consumer Protection can’t justify or is asleep at the switch in enforcing.”
What happened in 2022
The last cap was not a Republican-only idea. In April 2022 the Legislature voted unanimously for a temporary $2 cap that ran from June 1, 2022, through February 2023, BTPM reported at the time. Mr. Poloncarz’s administration had proposed a $3 cap, and the two sides settled on $2. Mr. Poloncarz estimated the savings then at 11 cents a gallon.
He also explained why savings might not reach drivers. The county’s sales tax on gasoline is not collected at the pump but when the retailer buys fuel from its wholesaler. “We’re going to have our Office of Consumer Protection out there with the Weights and Measures and the Attorney General’s Office to ensure that the savings are actually passed on to consumers,” he said in 2022.
That is the question at the center of this fight. If the county checked whether stations passed on the 2022 savings, its findings would settle whether a new cap would help drivers or mostly help retailers. The Chronicle could not find a published report of that monitoring and has asked the county executive’s office for one.
The other open number is the cost. The Chronicle found no published estimate from either side of how much revenue a $2 cap would cost the county at today’s prices, a figure that matters as lawmakers weigh the county’s 2027 budget this fall. The minority caucus did not offer one, arguing instead that sales tax revenue rose while the last cap was in effect.
The Legislature meets Thursday. The majority could vote the resolution down, pass it, or send it to committee for more study.
Updated October 22, 2026: This story was updated to include comment from the Erie County Legislature’s Republican minority caucus.
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