New York City’s Tax Revenue Slumps

New York City’s tax collections have declined in the past few months, bucking the yearslong trend of growth and raising concerns about a sharply rising budget under Mayor Bill de Blasio .

From April through August, tax collections from business, personal income, sales and real-estate transactions all decreased, compared with the same period in 2015, according to City Council data. Tax collections overall are down about 1% for this period, the last available public data.

The weakening in tax revenue drew the attention of council budget officials who said the drop represented a significant disparity from the past five years. Since 2012, the city’s total tax collections for this five-month span rose by an average of 7.4% when compared with the preceding year, the data show.

“This has not gone as it has in the recent past,” said Latonia McKinney, the council’s finance director, referring to tax collections. “It gives us pause to figure out what’s going on.”

Council budget officials said they are concerned about several trends.