By KWGS News
Oklahoma City, OK – State revenue collections in February exceeded the official
estimate for the first time since December 2008, but fell short of prior year collections for the same month, State Treasurer Scott Meacham announced today.
Preliminary reports show General Revenue Fund collections in February are $220.6
million. That amount is:
$17.3 million or 7.3 percent below the prior year; but,
$0.8 million or 0.4 percent above the estimate.
February revenue collections are historically the lowest of the year due to payment of income tax refunds. Therefore, collections were, as expected, not sufficient to fund allocations to state agencies for the month at the previously announced 10-percent reduction from appropriated levels. Along with General Revenue Fund cash from previous months' collections, an additional $84.8 million had to be utilized from other funds to make the $321.1 million monthly allocation.
Treasurer Meacham said gross production taxes on oil are providing a much-needed
boost in revenue collections. "We received $25 million in gross production taxes on oil in February, while the official estimate anticipated no oil gross roduction taxes would be deposited to the General Revenue Fund for the entire fiscal year," he said.
Meacham said personal income tax collections were also significantly higher than
anticipated for the month and are beginning to show signs of recovery.
"The Tax Commission's original estimate expected that refund payments would be $9.1
million greater than collections," he said. "However, after $158.3 million in refunds were paid, a total of $10.7 million remains."