Vermont Business Magazine Vermont tax revenues have suffered through several months below expectations, even as targets have been lowered, but in August they improved with the vital Personal Income Tax rebounding and the Corporate Tax leading the way. The one notable disappointment was the Sales Tax. The General Fund for the month of August collected $96.71 million, +$2.33 million or 2.47 percent above revenue targets adopted by the Emergency Board on July 21, 2016. This better than expected performance was driven primarily by the following tax components; Personal Income Tax at +$1.03 million or +2.47%, Corporate Tax at +$1.28 million, or +79.48% and Meals and Rooms Tax at +$1.25 million +8.35%. These gains were slightly offset by underperformances in the following taxes; Sales and Use, Inheritance and Estate and Insurance Premium.
The Transportation Fund collected $23.03 million for the month of August, -$1.55 million or –6.29 percent below a target of $24.57 million. Better than projected results in the Gasoline Tax of +$.10 million or 1.42 percent were offset by a slight underperformance in all other tax components.
The Education Fund collected $15.41 million for the month of August missing the target by -$0.03 million or –.20%. The underperformance was driven by Sales and Use missing by -$0.27 million and the Purchase and Use Tax missing by -$0.20 million.
Revenues increased year over year in the General Fund by +$11.03 million or 5.68%, the Transportation Fund +$1.30 million or 3.18%, and the Education Fund +$0.89 million or 2.98%.
Secretary Johnson said, “We are pleased to see the August revenues for the General Fund have put us back on track with year-to-date revenue targets. This result is a good example that the early months are not indicative of where we will end up."
August is the second month of Fiscal Year 2017.
“This Administration," Johnson said, "continues to practice prudent fiscal management, which has meant six straight balanced budgets with no increase in income tax rates, sales tax rates, or rooms and meals tax rates. During the past five and a half years Vermont has created over 17,000 new jobs and seen revenue performance improve every year. Overall our total budget has grown by 3.7 percent while revenues have increased 3.1 percent. For the first time since the Great Recession, Ver-mont will not rely on one-time funds to balance the budget. That is a record of economic and fiscal management that benefits Vermonters and has put our state on a more sustainable path for the long-term.”
