By Hank Russell
The end of 2024 was not a good one for both counties and Long Island overall, with sales tax collections not being as robust the past year. The last months of the year were no better.
Long Island collected $3.5034 billion in sales tax revenue last year, which was a slight drop of 0.2% from 2023, when $3.5109 billion was collected. Nassau’s collections also dropped by 0.2% from $1.5705 billion in 2023 to $1.567 billion in 2024. Last year’s collections from Suffolk County were off by 0.3%: $1.9314 billion collected, compared to 2023 ($1.9364 billion).
Quarterly collections were weak across the board. Long Island collected $863.6 million in the last quarter of 2024 — down 7.6% from the third quarter of 2024 with $934.7 million, and a 1.1% decrease from Q4 2023 ($873.2 million).
Nassau and Suffolk’s numbers both fared poorly. Fourth-quarter figures for Nassau were at $393.6 million, which is 2.5% off from the previous quarter ($403.6 million) and 0.6% off the numbers from Q4 2023 ($395.9 million). Suffolk’s quarterly sales tax collections were at $468.8 million, which is 1.5% lower than in Q3 2024 ($529.5 million) and a 1.6% decrease from Q$ 2023 ($476.3 million).
On a month-by-month basis, Long Island collected $318.2 million in December. While that is a 15.4% improvement over November — when $275.7 million was collected — it was 5.6% less than the previous December’s figure of $337.3 million.
Both Nassau and Suffolk saw drastic yearly drops in revenue. Nassau collected $143.3 million two months ago, which is 7.2% less than the $154.5 million in December 2023. From December 2023 to December 2024, Suffolk’s sales tax collections fell 4.4% from $182.2 million to $174.3 million.
The only consolation was that both counties saw monthly increases. Nassau’s collections grew 13.7% over November’s number of $126.0 million. In Suffolk, December’s collections were up 16.7% from November 2024 ($149.4 million).
“New York’s local governments rely on sales tax collections to support essential services in their communities,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. “Sales tax growth slowed in 2024, and many counties and cities even experienced declines. This slowing growth, combined with economic risks and potential changes at the federal level, calls for careful budgeting on the part of local officials to effectively navigate these uncertain times.”