MOUNT HOPE, N.Y.—The Office of the New York State Comptroller told the Orange County government that its distribution of sales tax revenue to municipalities has violated state law since 2014, and officials are worried it could lead to towns and cities missing 20 percent of planned fund distribution from the county.
New York law allows counties to generally tax up to 3 percent, and Orange County collects a 3.75 percent local sales tax. The county can tax even more under an incremental tax system that requires authorization from the state legislature every two years. It then shares about 26 percent of the collected tax money with local municipalities every year.
