Shrinking sales tax receipts are a credit negative for New York counties outside the metropolitan New York City area, Moody's Investors Service said.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, the upstate counties saw a 0.3% decline in sales tax receipts compared to the fourth quarter of 2012.
In the fourth quarter nearly half of New York counties had a decline in these receipts compared to a year earlier, according to Moody's Investors Service analyst Valentina Gomez.
In the fourth quarter, Broome County, rated A2 with a negative outlook, had the greatest decline in such receipts, 8.7%. Broome County's seat is Binghampton.
Out of the 57 New York counties, 14 saw declines in revenue for the full calendar year of 2013 compared to calendar 2012. Of these 14 counties, 10 saw greater declines in the fourth quarter than for the whole year. Gomez described these 10 counties as bad and getting worse. Three counties had more than 2% declines in full year receipts and in fourth quarter receipts. These were Broome, Tioga, rated A1, and Steuben counties.
The New York City metro area had a 5.4% increase in sales tax receipts in the fourth quarter of 2013. For the year it experienced a 6.8% increase.
Along with New York City, the metro area includes Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties.
"The results indicate a stalling economic recovery in upstate New York, where full-year 2013 sales tax revenues rose 1.64%, down from full-year growth of 3.46% in 2012," Gomez said in a Moody's Credit Outlook piece published on Monday.
In 2013 four counties had a greater than 4% decline in sales tax receipts for the year: Schoharie, Broome, Tioga and A1-rated Chemung.
