Arkansas revenue report for February, 2009 is out

Get ready for the grocery tax reduction to sail through House Revenue & Tax. We're still up in revenue. A word of caution from DF&A: their figures are believed to include some one-time revenue from severance packages, etc, which implies not only one-time money but signals a future decline in revenue.

Taking those items out, revenues came in pretty close to the low forecast, which takes into account the economy. Collections for the fiscal year are $82.6 million above forecast and $95.4 million above last year's collections as of this month.

Collections of net available general revenues for February were $207.3 million. That is 8.6% above February, 2008 and 25% above forecast. Gross receipts collections for February, which include sales/use taxes, totaled $170.3 million (about 3.1% above February, 2008 and 3.0% above forecast). Gross receipts are a key indicator of consumer spending, which comprises roughly two-thirds of economic activity.

Individual income tax collections are 12% above projections (and 6.6% above February, 2008) and corporate income tax collections are 3.0% above forecast but 8.4% below February, 2008. Collections of individual income tax returns came in at $200.7 million, and corporate income tax collections were $3.3 million.

Click here for the report (BLR version)