Schenectady City Council passes new sales tax deal - NEWS10 ABC: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports

Schenectady City Council passes new sales tax deal

SCHENECTADY - It was expected to pass without a second thought, but instead the city's new sales tax deal brought vocal opposition, first from residents and then from city council members themselves.

Mayor Gary McCarthy brokered that new eight year agreement with Schenectady County, which would guarantee the city a larger share of the sales tax collected. McCarthy called it a fair deal.

But city budget analyst Jason Cuthbert disagreed and chose to go over his boss' head, emailing the city council directly to explain that the city should be getting millions more. Cuthbert used graphs and data sets to back up his claims.

With time running out, the city council went into executive session to review the findings and in the end chose to pass the deal, 4 to 2.

The city council also voted on a measure to eliminate five city positions but that didn't pass.