Yates County had the steepest decline in local sales tax collections through the first three months of this year, compared to the same quarter in 2023. According to the State Comptroller’s report, the county’s collections for the first three months of 2024 were $4.02 million, down 7.1 percent from $4.33 million last year.
Outside of New York City, the Comptroller’s report found that first-quarter collections for counties and cities in the rest of the state, were virtually flat (-0.03%), year over year. This marked the first time that quarterly collections have not grown since the first quarter of 2021, though it was not unusual to see flat growth or even declines, on a quarterly basis prior to the pandemic.
On a county-by-county basis, Westchester County had the strongest growth at 12.7%, followed by the counties of Sullivan (12.4%) and Allegany (7.3%). Yates County had the steepest decline at -7.1%, followed by Franklin County (-6.8%), as well as the counties of Erie and Delaware, at -6.4% each.
A majority of cities (12 of 18) outside of New York City that impose their own sales tax experienced year-over-year growth in the first quarter. Oswego had the strongest increase at 15.3%, followed by Glens Falls (8.4%) and Saratoga Springs (7.6%). Of the six cities that saw declines, Norwich experienced the steepest drop at -7.3%.
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