ALBANY, NY (WXXI News & AP) New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says sales taxes collected by local governments across the state grew in 2018 for the third consecutive year.
DiNapoli released a report Monday that finds collections rose by $872 million, or 5.3 percent, to $17.5 billion last year.
Dinapoli says that every region in the state has seen an increase in the annual growth rate for sales tax revenues in each of the last three years, except the Finger Lakes, which slowed a bit last year.
The Southern Tier saw the highest year over year increase. In this region, Monroe County took in about $503 million in sales taxes last year, that was up a little over two percent.
On a percentage basis, among the local counties, Livingston had the biggest increase, their sales tax revenues were up more than nine percent to nearly $35 million.
Most regions of the state saw increased collections over 2017, including the Southern Tier at 6.8 percent, the North Country at 5.9 percent and the Mohawk Valley at 5.8 percent.
New York City's sales tax collections grew by 5.7 percent, following a trend over the past several years.
DiNapoli says one reason for the increase in sales tax revenues is likely the fact that more New Yorkers were employed last year than the year before; another is that wages overall were up for part of the year and consumer confidence has remained high.
He says a Supreme Court ruling last year that gives states more sway in how they require sales taxes to be collected from online retailers, is expected to boost sales tax collections starting next year.