Nassau, Suffolk see bump in sales tax receipts

Along with the summery weather this week came an equally pleasant upward bump in sales tax receipts from the state for both Nassau and Suffolk counties, officials said Thursday. Although the receipts were only partial payments for March and not statistically significant on their own, county officials who have been hammered by bad economic news for almost two years were cheered by them.

“I think we can be optimistic for the remainder of this year,” Nassau Comptroller George Maragos said.

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said earlier this week that he has revised his budget to project a 3 percent growth in sales tax this year, up from the 1.75 percent growth originally projected.

“I am optimistic this is a sign of an improving economy,” Mangano said.

In Suffolk, Deputy County Executive Connie Corso said that if the next check proves equally positive, the county would consider revising its revenue estimates upward.

“We always like to be conservative, and we would consider increasing our estimates after we see second quarter results, post adjustments,” Corso said, and she added a defense of County Executive Steve Levy.

“These figures are a vindication of the county executive’s sales tax estimates for the year, which had been vilified by legislators and editorialists alike as being exceedingly optimistic,” she said.

Steven Antonio, head of Nassau’s Office of Legislative Budget Review, called the sales tax flow so far this year “very encouraging.”

“Whether this growth can be sustained for the rest of the year will depend on the robustness of the county’s emergence from the recession, particularly in the area of employment,” Antonio said.