Statewide sales tax collections jump in October

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Monday that state sales tax collections jumped by 2.3% in October, compared to the same month in 2023.

The increase in collections has provided a revenue bump to municipalities across the state in a year where sales tax growth has slowed significantly from recent years.

“October growth in statewide sales tax collections was led by New York City, buoying monthly performance after virtually flat statewide growth in September,” DiNapoli said. “Recent volatility in sales tax collections warrants caution for local governments as they finalize their budgets for next year.”

Data released by the state comptroller shows that for the first 10 months of 2024, sales tax revenues in Niagara County, which the city shares in, have grown just 0.7%.

Statewide growth for the period has been 1.8%.

The October statewide surprise has been welcome news for local municipal governments with collections totaling $1.84 billion for the month, up $41 million year over year.

The revenue growth was driven by spending in New York City with county and city sales tax collections in the rest of the state totaling $884 million, an increase of 0.4%.

Over 63% (36 of 57) of counties in the state experienced year-over-year increases in October.

“As we get our sales tax deliveries (from Niagara County) we have noticed that there’s been a downturn,” Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino said. “We may be seeing a plateau (in sales tax collections) back to pre-COVID levels.”

Restaino said city officials have been careful, for the last two years, “when (sales tax increases) were meteoric”, not to be “too heady” with their revenue projections.

“I think we will probably see a modest increase (in sales tax collections) year over year (this year),” Restaino said. “But nothing as atmospheric as we’ve seen. It will be much more controlled.”