The numbers are in, and a program encouraging people to pay past-due state taxes did well.
Paula Ross with the Oklahoma Tax Commission said the original projection for collections through PAYRight OK was $35 million.
"We collected over $129 million in past-due taxes, and we have some that will still come in off of pay out plans, so we’re hoping to exceed $146 million for the state of Oklahoma," Ross said.
PAYRight OK ran from Sept. 14 to Nov. 13. It allowed individuals and businesses to pay income, sales, use, gasoline and diesel, gross production, and other taxes without penalties or interest.
State Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger said the collections will help mitigate any potential budget shortfall.
"We’re watching and monitoring very closely the revenues to, hopefully, avoid automatic budget cuts, which would occur under a revenue failure," Doerflinger said. "If that does not happen, which I’m optimistic it won’t, this will be one of the big reasons for that being the case."
Around 80 percent of the PAYRight OK collections were from individual income tax returns.
