CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Following a turbulent few months in the Canada-USA relationship, Canadian shoppers are making fewer trips across the border. Simultaneously, Erie & Niagara Counties estimate drops in sales tax revenue.
“We want them back desperately. They are truly missed,” Town of Niagara Supervisor Sylvia Virtuoso said.
Car travel to the US is down. Compared to 2024, 35,619 fewer cars went across the Peace Bridge in Buffalo this February and March, and another 29,537 fewer cars crossed the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls over the same time period.
Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz told a Bloomberg reporter “The county’s initial sales tax receipts have slipped 7 percent through mid-February, a $4.9 million reduction in revenue. Poloncarz blames the decline at least partly on a drop in Canadian visitors.”
In Niagara County, January and February sales tax revenue is also down an estimated 1 percent.
In both counties, some of the largest sales tax collectors are the shopping malls, the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga and the Fashion Outlets in the Town of Niagara.
Q: "How would a dip in attendance in a place like the Galleria affect the town?"
Cheektowaga Supervisor Brian Nowak: “[It would impact] not just the town, but the county too, because you collect county taxes… For our highway department in particular, a lot of the revenue comes to that department from sales taxes, about 75 cents on the dollar.”
Virtuoso: “Everybody’s budgets are impacted by the sales tax revenue…. The outlet mall to the Town of Niagara is the heart of the town. For all of Niagara County, it provides the majority of sales tax revenue.”
I reached out to both the Outlets and the Galleria asking how this Canadian decline has impacted their sales, but I never heard back from either.
