Tax take is down: OK general revenue collections drop 10 percent in August

BEARER OF GLAD TIDINGS: Oklahoma state government tax revenues subject to appropriation were down in August, Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger reports. The decline resulted from taxpayers accessing exemptions and credits allowed under state law, Tax Commission analysis showed.

By Patrick B. McGuigan | Oklahoma Watchdog

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma state government tax revenue subject to appropriation (known as general revenue receipts) declined in August, but that’s not a subtle hint of bad news for the economy.

Turns out, taxpayers in the Sooner State accessed exemptions and credits to keep more of their own money.

In his monthly analysis of general revenue fund (GRF) receipts, Secretary of Finance Preston L. Doerflinger said, “This was a single-month collection anomaly rather than any reflection of Oklahoma’s economy. One month does not diminish the strength Oklahoma’s economy has shown for going on three years now.”

Doerflinger and officials at the Oklahoma Tax Commission attributed the dip in direct revenue to reduced income tax collections, which were 27.9 percent ($ 40.2 million) below last year’s level.

Doerflinger stressed the commission “is processing far more corporate and personal income tax refunds at this time of the year than it normally does, which has led to temporary distortions of income tax collections. As a result, the GRF received no corporate income tax collections in August because corporate income tax refunds exceeded corporate income tax collections.”

His staff’s release on the August data continued, “Personal income tax collections fell $ 36.2 million or 25.9 percent from a year ago due in large part to an $ 11 million increase in personal income tax refunds processed compared to the same month a year ago.”

Total revenue for state government from all sources continues to be robust, previous analyses have found. The state has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, at 5.3 percent.

You may contact McGuigan, bureau chief for the Watchdog.org in Oklahoma City, at Patrick@capitolbeatok.com

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Tax take is down: OK general revenue collections drop 10 percent in August

New Jersey income tax collections up, jobless rate down in April

Thu May 16, 2013 5:39pm EDT

(Reuters) – New Jersey’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.7 percent in April and personal income tax collections rose 29.1 percent to $ 2.23 billion from the same month last April, state data show.

The revenue increase, along with the third consecutive monthly decline in the jobless rate, are good news for New Jersey’s economy, which has struggled to recover from the recession.

So far this fiscal year, New Jersey has taken in $ 9.6 billion in personal income tax revenue, 12.8 percent greater than the same period last year, state Treasury Department numbers showed on Thursday.

Total revenues were up 20 percent in April compared with the same month last year and up 6.9 percent for the fiscal year-to-date to $ 20.7 billion.

New Jersey’s rise in April personal income tax collections was about on par with a Thomson Reuters sampling of other U.S. states, which had a median 24.4 percent increase, excluding California’s dramatic 74 percent spike.

Across the country, however, the improvements might not continue as a still-shaky economy, tax cuts in some states and federal budget woes could depress revenue growth.

The good news also comes with another hitch: The surge stems in part from taxpayers who pushed income ahead into 2012 to avoid federal tax hikes that took effect in January, according to the report this month from the Rockefeller Institute of Government, an independent research group in Albany, New York.

“The temptation will be (for states) to treat it as recurring revenue available to support ongoing spending, or available for tax cuts,” wrote the report’s authors, Don Boyd and Lucy Dadayan. “Caution is in order.”

In New Jersey, Christie has renewed pressure on state Democrats to implement a tax cut, similar to one they prevented last year because the state’s revenues had not improved enough.

(Reporting by Hilary Russ. Editing by Andre Grenon)

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Reuters: Economic News

New Jersey income tax collections up, jobless rate down in April

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