New York state local sales-tax collections rise 3% in July

“Local sales tax growth in July continued at a moderate pace, similar to growth rates from before the pandemic,” DiNapoli said in the release. “This may be slower than some local officials anticipated after two years of more robust growth, making careful cash flow monitoring especially important.”

For July 2023 compared with July 2022, nearly all (54 out of 57) counties saw some year-over-year increase. Lewis County generated the strongest sales-tax collection growth at 28.1 percent. Orleans County saw the largest decline at 12.1 percent.

New York City’s tax collections totaled $777 million, a rise of 0.2 percent, or $1.4 million. County and city collections in the rest of the state totaled $935 million, an increase of 5 percent, per DiNapoli’s office.

These monthly sales-tax collections are from the cash distributions made to counties and tax-imposing cities by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The amounts are based on estimates of what each municipality is due. 

In the third month of each calendar year quarter, these distributions are adjusted upward or downward, so that the quarter as a whole reflects reported sales by vendors. 

The next quarterly numbers (for July to September) will be available in October.