Petersburg paid to advertise one of its two sales tax ballot questions, finance director says

Petersburg voters will decide two sales tax questions on Oct. 6, and the borough has paid to advertise only one of them.

Finance Director Judy Ulmer told the assembly Monday that she had budgeted about $4,000 for ballot proposition advertising. She spent it last week on newspaper and Facebook ads for Proposition 2, which would raise the borough's cap on taxable purchases. She did not advertise Proposition 3, a citizen initiative to expand the senior sales tax exemption, because she said the assembly had ultimately voted no on it. "I didn't feel like we could put something in there," Ulmer said.

Assembly Member Jeigh Stanton Gregor agreed. "There's not money budgeted because the assembly didn't vote for it," he said. The assembly did not direct any additional advertising.

The senior initiative follows a change voters made last year. In October 2025, they limited the borough's senior sales tax exemption to low-income seniors who qualify for the state's Senior Benefits Payment Program. Residents then petitioned to put a broader exemption on the ballot. Speaking earlier in the meeting as a resident, Ulmer said 340 people signed the petition in about two weeks.

Proposition 3 would exempt permanent borough residents 70 and older who hold a borough exemption card, without the state certification that residents 65 to 69 would still need. Ulmer said seniors on fixed incomes are the ones being hurt now, squeezed by rising property taxes, sewer fees, electricity, food and gas.

Proposition 2 would raise the most of any single purchase subject to the borough's 6% sales tax from $1,200 to $5,000. That lifts the most tax anyone pays on one transaction from $72 to $300. Borough meeting materials describe the change as a way to help offset future property tax increases.

Assembly members split on the cap Monday, though they took no vote. Member Bob Martin said the cap dates to 1959 and called $5,000 reasonable. He said he bought more than $10,000 worth of boat fuel this summer, and under the current cap, the tax on a single day's purchase topped out at $72.

Member Scott Newman said he spends about $100,000 a year on fuel and said the added tax would fall on customers, not him. "The customer's going to pay for that," Newman said.

Voters will also decide Proposition 1, which would authorize up to $3.3 million in electric utility revenue bonds for the Scow Bay standby generation project, along with races for the assembly and other local boards.

Early in-person voting runs weekdays from 11 am to 3 pm downstairs at the Municipal Building, 12 S. Nordic Drive, and ends at noon Oct. 5. Applications for absentee ballots by mail or email are due to the borough clerk by 4:30 pm Oct. 1. On election day, polls are open from 8 am to 8 pm in the Parks and Recreation Activity Room, 500 N. Third St.