Continuing a strong start to Fiscal Year 2020, state revenue again rose in December. According to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency, the state took in $44.1 million more than what was collected in December, 2018. This is a 6.6 percent increase over the previous year’s figure. Through the first half of the fiscal year, state revenue has increased 6.4 percent over FY 2019. This puts revenue collected ahead of the Revenue Estimating Conferences projection from its December meeting of 2.1 percent growth for Fiscal Year 2020.
Personal Income Tax receipts were down slightly, declining 3.2 percent when compared to December 2018’s figures. Estimate payments and payments with returns were significantly higher than their 2018 levels for the same month, while withholding payments were lower. This is the subcategory that was impacted by the lowering of withholding tables when the tax reform law went into effect in January. For the year, the Revenue Estimating Conference has projected personal income tax collections to increase by 0.1 percent. Through the first six months, personal income tax is up 1.1 percent.
Sales and Use Tax collections continued to grow above their FY 2019 levels. For the month, collections saw an increase of 2.3 percent over last year. For the year, growth in sales and use tax is 7.1 percent which is ahead of the REC projection of 5.9 percent growth.
Corporate Income Tax collections were higher in December, with the state taking in 113.7 million. This was $21.5 million higher than what was collected in December 2018. For the year, corporate income tax is 11.0 percent higher than FY 2019. This is still well ahead of the REC projection, which calls for a 3.2 percent increase in collections.
Tax refund payments were down $22.1 million compared to December 2018. School infrastructure distributions to local districts for the month also declined, with the amount going down by $8.5 million.
