Local government sales tax collections dropped 10 percent in 2020, according to a press release from the state comptroller.
That comes out to a $1.8 billion drop, compared to last year.
The drop overall was worse than that in the Great Recession, when the local sales tax collections fell 6 percent statewide in 2009 compared to 2008.
The drop was steeper overall in New York City than the rest of the state, due to the city’s early status as a hotbed of COVID-19 cases. NYC had a 35 percent fall in sales tax collections in the second quarter, while the rest of the state saw a 19 percent drop. In the third and fourth quarters, NYC saw double-digit declines of 21.9 percent and 18.5 percent, while other areas in the states were seeing growth.
“This report shows how deeply the COVID-19 pandemic cut into municipal finances,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. “Local governments depend heavily on sales taxes as a major source of revenue, but as New Yorkers stayed home and bought less in their communities during the pandemic, it created significant shortfalls. New York’s localities need federal aid to help get through this crisis.”
The report also found that statewide, restaurants or other eating places, traveler accommodation and clothing stores saw steep decreases in year-over-year taxable sales. The biggest hits came for March through May, and improved slightly in June to August while some COVID restrictions were lifted.
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Retail rents have fallen in NYC while vacancies were on the rise, PYMNTS writes. Rent for retail space fell 25 percent during the pandemic, with big name retailers like Neiman Marcus and Century 21 closing stores. A biannual report from the Real Estate Board of New York also found that the retail rents in Manhattan had fallen in all 17 corridors tracked.
SoHo was one of around eight areas around the city that saw their lowest average asking rents in about a decade, the report found.
