Up 2.1% from Last Year, 0.3% from July
By Hank Russell
The New York State Comptroller’s Office released its monthly sales tax revenue reports in New York State. According to the report, Long Island collected $292.7 million in sales tax revenues last month. That is a 2.8% increase from last year, when $284.7 million was collected in August 2023, but only a 0.3% increase from July’s figure of $291.8 million.
So far this year, Long Island’s revenues totaled $2.2895 billion, according to the comptroller’s report. That is a minor decrease of 0.2% year over year. During the first eight months of 2023, Long Island hauled in $2.2941 billion.
When broken down by county, Nassau outperformed Suffolk. In August, Nassau collected $127.4 million in sales taxes, which is up 4.9% from August 2023 with $121.4 million, but a slight increase of 0.7% from July’s figure of $126.5 million.
“The continued increases in sales tax revenue in Nassau County reflect the stability of this important source of revenue,” said Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips in a statement. “Sales tax accounts for approximately 45 percent of Nassau’s operating revenue – by far our largest source of funding – and once again I am confident that we will end the year on a positive note.”
Meanwhile, Suffolk brought in $164.9 million last month, up 1.2% from last August ($162.9 million, but only up less than one-tenth of a percent from July ($164.8 million). So far this year, Suffolk’s collections are off 0.6% from the same time in 2023. This year’s year-to-date collections were at $1.2627 billion, compared to $1.2702 billion last year.
“My Office is watching [the] sales tax [collections] closely,” Suffolk County Comptroller John Kennedy said in a statement. “Hopefully; the Fed’s rate cut will spur the economy; however, inflation remains persistent and has weakened the public’s purchasing power.”