State tax revenue
fell in December

Star-Bulletin staff

Slower consumer spending caused the state's tax revenues to drop in December but the total tax income for the first half of the current fiscal year was still improved, the latest figures show.

The total tax revenue that flowed into the state coffers in December was $253 million, a decrease of $11.5 million or 4.4 percent from the $264.6 million received in December 1997, state Tax Director Ray Kamikawa said today in a news release.

The tax income for the first half of fiscal 1999 was $1.43 billion, up 2.9 percent from $1.39 billion in the first six months of the previous fiscal year.

General excise and use taxes in totaled $115.7 million in December, down 9.9 percent from $128.5 million in December 1997.

July-December general excise and use tax revenues totaled $712.7 million in 1998, up 1.6 percent from $701.4 million in the equivalent period of 1997.

The transient accommodation tax -- an indicator of the health of the state's key tourism industry because it is a percentage of hotel room revenues -- was $10.5 million in December, down 3.7 percent from $10.9 million in the previous December.

For the six-month period, the hotel tax was down 2 percent at $59.9 million, from $61.1 million a year earlier.