Erie County’s sales tax revenue rose 4.25 percent in 2018, the largest one-year increase in seven years, according to the county budget office.
Despite slowing fourth-quarter growth, the county gained $12.5 million more in sales tax revenue than officials budgeted.
Sales tax growth met or exceeded 3 percent in October and November, but shrank to 2.2 percent in December. The county budgeted for sales tax growth of 1.75 percent this year, so now will need to see growth of only 1.54 percent because of the higher-than-anticipated revenue from last year.
County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz touted what he called the county’s conservative budgeting approach, but said that given December’s returns, future tax revenues bear monitoring.
