ALBANY — Local sales-tax collections statewide grew 4.7 percent to $18.3 billion in 2019, according to a recent report from New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. While this was slower than the 5.3 percent annual growth for 2018, it surpassed growth in all other years since 2013. “The economic climate in New York state […]
ALBANY — Local sales-tax collections statewide grew 4.7 percent to $18.3 billion in 2019, according to a recent report from New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
While this was slower than the 5.3 percent annual growth for 2018, it surpassed growth in all other years since 2013.
“The economic climate in New York state was positive through 2019 with continued employment and wage growth,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “Although all regions saw increased sales-tax collections, the upstate regions had weaker collections than the downstate region.”
The Central New York region (which the state defined as Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego counties) posted 2.3 percent growth in sales-tax collections in 2019. The Mohawk Valley area (Oneida, Herkimer, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, and Schoharie counties) generated a 3.5 percent increase last year, while the North Country (Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Lewis, Essex, Franklin, and Clinton counties) had 3.4 percent growth, and the Southern Tier region (Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins counties) posted a 3.3 percent increase.
Sales-tax collections across the state rose fastest during the second half of 2019, growing 6.3 percent in the third quarter and 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter, per the comptroller’s office.
DiNapoli’s report also spotlighted the impact of the changes made by the state to the Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) program in state fiscal year 2019-20. The comptroller was directed to replace the funds that were cut by withholding $59 million from county sales-tax collections to make AIM-related payments to most towns and villages. According to the report, the total statewide year-over-year increase for all county sales-tax collections after subtracting AIM-related payments would decrease to 3.9 percent instead of 4.4 percent (See Figure 6 in the report).
The full report is available at: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/pubs/research/growth-in-local-sales-tax-collections-second-half-2019.pdf