May’s tax revenues up
10.1 percent over 2003
With less than a month left in the fiscal year, state tax collections are in line to exceed expectations.
The state deposited $288.5 million in tax revenues into the general fund last month,10.1 percent more than a year earlier, according to the state Taxation Department.
General fund deposits for the first 11 months of the fiscal year were up 7.9 percent to $3.08 billion.
That compares with the 5.2 percent fiscal year growth forecast by the state Council on Revenues -- the figure on which the state's budget and spending plan are based.
The year-end revenue growth, to be reported in early July, is expected to be under the 7.9 percent cumulative figure because June's tax take will be compared with June 2003, which was inflated due to a "weekend effect" on collections.
Because May 2003 ended on a Saturday, the payment deadline was pushed to June 2, meaning a lot of May's revenues were counted in the June total last year.
Corporate and individual income tax, general excise, use and hotel room tax collections are all higher so far this year compared with the same 11-month period last year. But general excise and use tax collections were lower last month compared with May 2003.
General excise and use tax collections were $7.9 million, or 6 percent, less in May compared with the same month last year. The decrease was offset by increases of $24.4 million in individual income taxes and $9.2 million in corporate income tax collections.
Francis Okano, the Tax Department's research and planning officer, said the drop in the excise and use tax take in May is "a monthly quirk" in part attributable to one fewer working day in this May than in May 2003.