Post by pavel on May 5, 2016 22:31:04 GMT -6
On its face, the state's April revenue report given to the Legislature this week is a shocker — the month's tax collections are down $85 million from estimates, and $79 million short compared to last April.
Were that true, such a shortfall would be cause for panic and likely force Gov. Phil Bryant to make a third round of cuts for fiscal 2016, which ends June 30.
But state tax officials say those figures are inaccurate, skewed largely because of income tax collections that came in later in April and are being processed more slowly because budget cuts forced the Department of Revenue to send home 35 temporary mail room workers during tax time.
"The due date for (individual) taxes was three days later this year (April 18), and a lot of mail didn't get to us until last week," Department of Revenue spokeswoman Kathy Waterbury said Wednesday. "It's a shorter month, we lost work time, plus we lost people working on the mail. ... Saturday, through this morning, we put $68.5 million in the bank."
Read more: www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/04/state-budget-shortfall/83941880/
Were that true, such a shortfall would be cause for panic and likely force Gov. Phil Bryant to make a third round of cuts for fiscal 2016, which ends June 30.
But state tax officials say those figures are inaccurate, skewed largely because of income tax collections that came in later in April and are being processed more slowly because budget cuts forced the Department of Revenue to send home 35 temporary mail room workers during tax time.
"The due date for (individual) taxes was three days later this year (April 18), and a lot of mail didn't get to us until last week," Department of Revenue spokeswoman Kathy Waterbury said Wednesday. "It's a shorter month, we lost work time, plus we lost people working on the mail. ... Saturday, through this morning, we put $68.5 million in the bank."
Read more: www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/04/state-budget-shortfall/83941880/