It seems that all the elected officials in Ulster County are once again screaming about sales taxes. Or at least what portion of the small percentage of that eight percent added on to bills that gets spread about locally. Wait, make that the percentage that gets given to towns and other municipalities to be spread about as they say fit.

Lose you yet? Here's a subject that tends to get the public rolling its eyes. Remember back when County Executive Mike Hein and Assemblyman Kevin Cahill were at each others' throats for nearly a year over the same subject? That's when Cahill decided not to get the state legislature to okay an extra bit for Ulster, as it usually does pro forma, unless Hein did what he said he'd do and have the county take over "Safety Net" costs for county towns, which meant a lot in particular to a few key places like Kingston, Saugerties... and Wawarsing. Hein said Cahill was just being a prima donna. Both ended up claiming victory when the dust settled and the lost tax was added back in.

At the time, the assemblyman was pointing out that sales tax amounts stay in a community if not collected and handed back to county government. The county executive talked about balancing budgets and the use such funds had in financing needed projects involving infrastructure.

Now, the new leadership in the county legislature seems to have decided that a year without an exciting sales tax brouhaha was boring. So they touched the rail again, this time suggesting that the county take back a proportion of the sales tax out there similar to what it used to have back in the days when Ulster was solidly Republican-controlled.

Sales tax sharing formulas differ from county to county in the region, with Greene County keeping every penny in sales tax revenue it collects, while in Orange County officials earmark for local municipalities more than 26 percent of the revenue generated from its 3.75 percent sales tax. In Dutchess County, the county recently moved from a formula that gave a percentage of its total receipts to local governments to one that provides a set base amount of money to be divvied between them. Ulster, it turns out, has historically kept a larger percentage of sales tax revenue.

Of course, most town and City of Kingston leaders are crying foul, while several legislators we've spoken with say that the real reasoning out there is that many in county government believe municipalities never did much with their saved Safety Net funds, at least in terms of positive projects beyond usual pay raises and the like. Which leads to municipal leaders pointing to the tax caps restricting their budgets in times of greater infrastructure and localized economic development needs. And conversely, county leaders noting that they're better at ensuring funds get in the hands of projects that need them the most to help all boats in this pond (or quagmire) known as Ulster County.

How much are we talking about? Over $100 million, all told, with Kingston getting about $12.5 million of that and the county's towns splitting $3.3 million. And all's to be decided upon, in terms of formulas, by the end of this month... unless Cahill enters the discourse and removes some of what's being argued about. Which no one thinks he will, yet.

In our view, what this is all about — as with most cases of big versus littler governmental entities and their share of power — has to do with equitable distribution. Which also has to do with past patterns of vested interest, vision, and a sense of that vague concept, the "greater good." History has led us to where we are; we created state road systems, and eventually an Interstate system, to overcome the problems that occurred when town and county routes failed to match up at borders. We do the same with schools, social welfare, and economic development programs where the costs are too great for one municipality to do much that's effective, or we want better equity.

As for sales tax distribution... it's a great way of raising funds for big projects. The question is whether they're needed more by all in Ulster County, or certain places more than others. Our vote, from the Wawarsing perspective, is for more to the county. Who can lend more of a hand here.