The New York Law That Could Start Costing Residents A Ton Of Money

Between never-ending increases in housing prices to a stubborn inflation rate, perhaps the last thing that U.S. consumers need in 2025 are any additional expenses. While trying to balance saving money with your quality of life can be a tricky tightrope to navigate, it is increasingly necessary for many cash-strapped Americans. However, even with all the budgeting in the world, some consumers may be surprised to find that their taxpayer dollars are another problem they have to worry about.

New Yorkers in particular could be in for some unforeseen extra expenses — and as a result of winter weather no less. To be more specific, New York taxpayers are paying a lot more for road salt in 2025. While road salt might not seem like the most significant taxpayer expense in today's economy, the law behind the recent rock salt issue is part of a larger isolationist policy trend affecting consumers. In 2022, the New York State legislature passed Senate Bill S9441, otherwise known as the Buy American Road Salt Act. The act proclaimed that New York state must, "ensure all rock salt, or sodium chloride, used or supplied in the performance of a government contract or any subcontract thereto within the state shall be mined or hand harvested in the United States." However, the bill is instead costing taxpayers significant amounts of money from their city and municipality budgets, the consequences of which are sure to affect every facet of local life.

While the push towards American-made production is noble on its surface — much like how Trump's budget-destroying 2025 tariffs are supposedly intended to bring production back to the U.S. — the logistical reality of such a switch largely leaves consumers, or in this case taxpayers, paying the price. Specifically, the Buy American Road Salt Act meant that individual municipalities across the state of New York could only accept road salt bids from companies with American mines. And, just like how tariffs raise the prices on consumer goods, this meant municipalities had to accept bids that were fundamentally more expensive — sometimes more than 10% more – than bids from, say, Canada.

This left fewer choices for road salt suppliers, and roughly half the state ended up choosing the same supplier, fittingly named American Rock Salt. However, this company ended up being overrun by the demand, leading to road salt shortages across the state in early 2025. A Rensselaer County Executive told local news outlet, CBS6 Albany, "You can't just have one supplier for [road salt] and that just caused a real burden for all of us."

This contractor failure led the New York State Office of General Services (OGS) to send out multiple emergency quote requests from other suppliers throughout the winter. The situation grew so dire that New York Governor Kathy Hochul even issued an executive order in February 2025 to increase road salt deliveries to areas affected by shortages — especially those that faced a state of emergency due to snow.

As of April 2025, it is not yet clear just how much money the state spent on emergency road salt purchases. Per CBS6 Albany, the OGS released a statement in early April stating, "To ensure motorists' safety, Governor Hochul issued executive orders to facilitate emergency road salt deliveries [...] ahead of incoming storms. OGS procured roughly 60,000 tons of emergency salt supplies, not including emergency supplies procured directly by counties. Those expenditures are still being reconciled."

With that in mind, a February public notice for the town of Clarence, New York offered some insights into just how badly many municipalities were gouged during the shortage. The statement included that Clarence typically reserves 6,000 tons of salt for each winter season before going on to explain, "Prior to the shortage, salt was priced at approximately $45 per ton, meaning a single round of road treatment cost around $6,000. However, due to the shortage, the Town has been forced to procure salt from out-of-state providers at a significantly increased cost of $110 per ton, substantially impacting the budget required to maintain safe road conditions." This is a roughly 144% price increase, meaning that, if the town of Clarence — which usually spends $270,000 on road salt per winter — was instead forced to purchase its entire road salt reserve at the out-of-state rate it would spend $660,000 instead, just on road salt. That leaves Clarence, and indeed many New York cities, facing serious budget concerns that will inevitably impact residents.