DECEMBER REVENUESNASHVILLE – Tennessee revenue collections for December reflect a slight improvement in consumer spending, but business taxes continued to show weakness. Overall revenues were $885.7 million or $55.7 million less than the state budgeted. “Sales taxes in December brought us the largest monthly growth rate so far this fiscal year,” Finance & Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz said. “However, we are still monitoring business taxes very closely, as collections in the current month will tell us if the dropoff we saw in October was a trend.” On an accrual basis, December is the fifth month in the 2007-2008 fiscal year. The general fund was under collected by $51 million and the four other funds were under collected by $4.7 million. Sales tax collections were $5.1 million less than the estimate for December. The December growth rate was 4.67%. For five months revenues are under collected by $59.5 million. Franchise and excise taxes combined were $35.8 million below the budgeted estimate of $186.5 million. For five months revenues are under collected by $73.5 million. Gasoline and motor fuel collections for December decreased by 2.55% and they were $3.3 million below the budgeted estimate of $72.2 million. For five months revenues are over collected by $2.2 million. Tobacco tax collections were $6.3 million below the budgeted estimate of $28.8 million, and for five months they are $40.3 million below the budgeted estimate. Year-to date collections for five months were $182.1 million less than the budgeted estimate. The general fund was under collected by $186.2 million and the four other funds were over collected by $4.1 million. The budgeted revenue estimates are based on the State Funding Board’s consensus recommendation adopted by the first session of the 105th General Assembly in June of 2007. |
