Personal income tax revenue is back up again in the latest round of monthly reports from the state budget office.
The state’s personal income tax haul for the annual tax return month of April was up nearly 12 percent, and the commercial activity tax that businesses pay was up 35 percent, after being off estimates by nearly 90 percent for March. Non-auto sales taxes were up a little over one and a half percent – that’s been a weak area for this fiscal year. But a weakness in this report was alcohol sales taxes – down 36 percent from forecasts. Overall, tax numbers are just a half percent off estimates, which means a slight surplus more than halfway through the fiscal year. At this time last year, state lawmakers were having to trim $800 million from their budget because tax revenues were so far off estimates.
