Friday, January 9, 2009
Politics / Woods Worst Month Ever for State Tax Man
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 11:21 AM
First, Marsha Blackburn nearly loses her house to the bank, and now the state government is reporting the worst month in history for sales tax collections.
"December is the fifth consecutive month this fiscal year in which sales taxes and corporate income taxes have recorded negative growth rates," Finance and Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz says. "December also made history - with the largest single negative growth month for sales tax collections on record."
We're beginning to think the economy is sputtering. The state's press release follows:
"December is the fifth consecutive month this fiscal year in which sales taxes and corporate income taxes have recorded negative growth rates," Finance and Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz said. "December also made history - with the largest single negative growth month for sales tax collections on record."
December is the tenth month in the past year that sales taxes had negative growth rates. Sales taxes comprise more than 60% of the state's revenue collections.
"In spite of this year's unprecedented shortfall in tax revenues we will meet our constitutional mandate and end this fiscal year with a balanced budget," Goetz said.
On an accrual basis, December is the fifth month in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
The general fund was under collected by $73.8 million and the four other funds were under collected by $9.9 million.
Sales tax collections were $67.6 million less than the estimate for December. The December growth rate was negative 10.28 percent. For five months revenues are under collected by $212.5 million.
Franchise and excise taxes combined were $1.4 million below the budgeted estimate of $143.9 million. For five months revenues are under collected by $135.7 million.
Gasoline and motor fuel collections for December decreased by 6.81% and they were $6.2 million below the budgeted estimate of $70.4 million. For five months revenues are under collected by $24.7 million.
Tobacco tax collections were $1.9 million above the budgeted estimate of $25.0 million, and for five months they are $2.4 million below the budgeted estimate.
Year-to-date collections for five months were $407.8 million less than the budgeted estimate. The general fund was under collected by $379.4 million and the four other funds were under collected by $28.4 million.
The budgeted revenue estimates for 2008-2009 are based on the State Funding Board's consensus recommendation adopted by the second session of the 105th General Assembly in May of 2008.
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