The Erie County Legislature has passed a law that would change the way sales tax rates are determined.

If approved in a referendum in November, all that would be needed to renew the current county sales tax is a simple majority vote in the Erie County Legislature, instead of a super majority — 2/3 vote — which is required by the county charter currently.

That means any time the county is looking to maintain the current sales tax rate, they would just need one more yes vote than no votes.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz on X applauded legislators who passed the law, saying it will help steer the county away from financial crisis.

GOP legislators say this was not necessary and compromises the legislative process.

“Their claims that this is necessary to speed up the process of approving the sales tax extension is ridiculous," Minority Leader and Erie County Legislator John Mills said in a statement. "When the Administration is forced to negotiate, good things have happened for taxpayers. There already is a measure in place that allows voters to decide if they want to extend the sales tax. The democrats want to take that right away. This is quite ironic for a party that claims they’re fighting for increased voter access and voter rights."