State tax collections down $167 million in March
State tax collections were off $167 million in March, the fourth consecutive bad month for a government already trying to deal with the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression.
Collections were off 14.5 percent from March 2008. For the fiscal year, which ends June 30, tax collections are down $1 billion or 8 percent.
March’s decline was actually an improvement over February, when the tax take was off by about one-third.
The news comes only a few days after state lawmakers passed a budget for the upcoming fiscal year that is balanced with $1.3 billion in federal stimulus money and $1.6 billion worth of spending cuts.
The poor collections in March included a 18.8 percent drop in income tax collections and a 5.9 percent decline in the sales tax take. Income and sales tax collections make up the largest share of the state’s income.
Collections have been off every month since November.
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13 comments Add your comment
Monica
April 8th, 2009
3:05 pm
Does it make sense to anyone else that if people don’t have jobs, they won’t be paying income taxes?
Irony
April 8th, 2009
3:08 pm
Those cuts in the capital gains tax came at a great time. Nice job guys.
socialismsux
April 8th, 2009
3:31 pm
What capital gains?
steve
April 8th, 2009
3:52 pm
Gee, maybe some one at the state level could tackle health care….
maybe cutting costs instead of people?
Peter
April 8th, 2009
4:03 pm
Yea, you a going to collect even less taxes if you keep ignoring the traffic issues in this state. Companies will just take their jobs somewhere else. Georgia state leaders are very incompetent, they care nothing about the major infrastructure of this state which is what attracted companies to this state in the past. Now these companies are leaving Georgia in droves and mostly in rural Georgia, wonder why? No jobs, No tax revenue.
b6542
April 8th, 2009
4:20 pm
Time to dial 1-800-PRESBO for a little more stimulus $$$$.
EW
April 8th, 2009
4:41 pm
Is that why they are auditing and leaning so hard on taxpayers?
Hhhmmmm
April 8th, 2009
4:47 pm
So who is going to bailout out our federal, state and local governments when they file for bankruptcy? Can’t just keep printing money. Nice vicious circle, we pay federal taxes to fill our state’s budget. On another note, if we bail out GM and we own 80% of the company shouldn’t we get a huge discount when we buy our next GM vehicle . . . .
Cagle and purdue perfect for each other
April 8th, 2009
6:52 pm
Yup Purdue trying to help his **HO Gena Evans** and castrate GDOT, was really brilliant. If Cagle thinks he’s going to be the next governor, he smoking some good stuff. He has been a failure as a LT. Governor. Pass no transportation bill, no money to build roads, which buisnesses will take their buisness somewhere else. Brilliant. Thanks Republicans its for your screwups why were in this recession to begin with. Sad thing I used to be for the republicans never again. No new buisness’s no taxes etc……… And they say we need to streamline it, we need to streamline their butts right out of office. All they care about are their rich friends.
Peter Hoffman
April 8th, 2009
8:15 pm
I own Northside Towing LLC Atlanta, GA and I have found myself competing with the Government for roadside assistance work. The Georgia D.O.T. (bankrupt) has a program called H.E.R.O. that rides the interstates from sun up to sun down doing it for free. I have explained to the Governor that I have downsized and cannot provide tax revenue when a government truck does the work for free. Free? no way the tax payers pay for the H.E.R.O. program…how backwards is this?
Joey Porter
April 8th, 2009
8:18 pm
what r you minions complaining about. what did you expect after voting for elmer fudd? as the locals say delta is waiting for you.
Now git, git, git out a here and stop whining. man up and suck it up.
Scott Cytron
April 9th, 2009
10:31 am
SpeedTax has a number of resources at its Web site, http://www.speedtax.com:
A short questionnaire companies can take to assess their risk related to being audited by their state for sales tax reporting and compliance.
Several white papers. First, “How to Chose a Sales Tax Management Solution,” is available for download at http://www.salestaxsoftwareguide.com.
Another white paper, “Why it’s Smart to Put Sales Tax on Your Radar,” is available as a PDF download at http://www.salestaxradar.com.
Mike
April 10th, 2009
12:12 pm
And it’s going to continue drop; let me explain further. Recently on my wife’s job she reviewed resumes for a position that pays 30K a year. One of the resumes she received was from a woman who on her previous job made 85K!!! Now,with our traffic problems companies have marked Atlanta off the list of desirable relocation cities and with this in mind, these formerly high wage earners are going to have to leave the state in order to find work. That means these high wage earners will no longer be here to pay taxes, purchase homes, cars etc. which will in the end cause the tax base to shrink even further, faster. But unfortunately “Howdy Doody” up there in the governor’s office doesn’t understand this.