State tax revenue
up 11.2%A state panel has stuck with
its December revenue forecast
State tax collections last month jumped 11.2 percent from February last year, putting the take through two-thirds of this fiscal year up 3 percent from the year before, according to the Department of Taxation.
The revenue report was issued Tuesday just hours before the state's Council on Revenues met and decided to stick with its December forecast that the entire fiscal year will see a 5.2 percent growth in revenue, followed by a 7.9 percent growth in the next fiscal year.
The state House's version of the supplemental budget bill, modifying the second-year funding in the $7.5 billion, two-year budget passed last year, is based on the 5.2 percent growth forecast, as was the governor's budget and spending plan submitted to lawmakers in December.
The panel of economists sets the revenue forecast on which the governor and Legislature base the state budget and spending plan.
Despite a variety of uncertainties in the state's vital tourist industry and the continuing concrete workers strike, the council decided to keep the same revenue forecast.
Besides the ongoing strike, "there's nothing new. There's basically the same numbers as before. There was some discussion on the economy and some updated numbers on personal income," said Michael Sklarz, chairman of the council.
In transmitting its report to the Legislature and the governor, the panel will include an advisory that if the month-old strike by 200 workers at Hawaiian Cement and Ameron Hawaii continues much longer, it will begin to impact the state's economy and tax revenues, he said.
February's $289.1 million in tax collections, the 11.2 percent jump, was led by a 15 percent increase in the general excise and use tax income, reflecting the state's business activity and accounting for about half of the total general fund income.
Through eight months, the general excise and use taxes are up 2.6 percent over the same period last year.
Individual income tax revenues, which account for about one-third of the total, were up 2.9 percent in February. That puts the eight-month total at 4.7 percent.