St. Lawrence County’s 2016 sales tax collections are down by 2.3 percent from the previous year.

Only six of the other 56 counties saw greater declines, according to a report release by the comptroller Monday.

St. Lawrence County collected $53,703,360 in 2016 and $54,940,283 in 2015.

Across most of the state the numbers were much better. Collections grew in 39 of the 57 counties outside of New York City, compared to 27 in 2015.

Two of the counties with the strongest growth were Chautauqua (12.7 percent) and Jefferson (6.0 percent) counties, both of which had sales tax rate increases effective December 1, 2015.

Each of these had significant corrections that boosted their numbers in 2016. The largest declines in sales tax collections were in Herkimer County (4.9 percent), Cattaraugus County (3.9 percent) and Washington County (3.6 percent), Cortland (2.8 percent), Chemung (2.6 percent), Genesee (2.4) percent and St. Lawrence County (2.3 percent).

While there were some distribution adjustment impacts in Herkimer and Cattaraugus counties, the Washington County decline appears to be due to a true decline in current collections.

“In general, each region’s growth in sales tax collections has been slower than historic trends. This slowdown, combined with limits on property tax levy growth, could make it more difficult for local governments to keep pace with increases in the costs of local government service,” the report says.