For the second month in a row, the state collected more income taxes than forecasts suggested it would. That’s quite a turnaround from last year, when the new state budget had to be trimmed as income taxes fell short nearly $850 million.
Personal income tax collections were up just under 1% last month, but that means the state is running almost 3% above what it thought it would be in that category. While income tax revenue has now been up for two months straight, there was some weakness. For instance, the commercial activity tax that businesses pay dropped nearly 1% below forecasts, after being up almost 22% for July. However, for the first time in almost a year, total taxes collected were above estimates for the month. And the state is around $23.5 million ahead for the fiscal year so far. Budget director Tim Keen had said he would be scaling back forecasts after problems in hitting the numbers last fiscal year.