County sales tax revenues off to strong start in first quarter of 2026

Chart information from State Comptroller’s Office. The state-wide number represents the amount for local governments – counties and cities.

ALBION – Orleans County’s sales tax revenues are up 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of nearly $300,000 from $5.88 million to $6.15 million, according to the State Comptroller’s Office.

Orleans is coming off a big sales tax year in 2025 when revenues jumped 9.3 percent or nearly $2.2 million from $23.42 million in 2024 to $25.59 million in 2025.

The revenue helps the county offset increases and helps hold down property taxes at the county level. The County legislature also shares $1,366,671 with the 10 towns and four villages, a level that has been unchanged since 2001. The towns and villages collectively receive about 5 percent of the total.

State-wide the local government sales tax collections are up 5.1 percent from $5.8 billion to 6.1 billion. Ulster County in seeing the biggest increase at 10.7 percent, followed by Genesee County at 9.7 percent.

“Local sales tax collections experienced a substantial increase in the first quarter compared to last year, but growth varied significantly by region,” said Tom DiNapoli, the state comptroller. “An economic slowdown due to geopolitical conflicts and federal actions could affect future tax collections, and local governments must be cautious in estimating this revenue.”

The comptroller said inflation was 2.4 percent in both January and February this year before increasing to 3.3 percent in March.

“In addition, gas prices spiked nationwide this past March due to the conflict between the United States and Iran,” the report from the comptroller stated. “Large fluctuations can influence local sales tax collections, even though motor fuels sales taxes comprise a small percentage of total collections.”

Photo by Tom Rivers: Main Street in downtown Albion is shown in this photo from early March.