Vermont Business Magazine General Fund (GF) revenues for the month of February finished $16.34 million above target largely resulting from a slow down in Personal Income Tax refunding due to concerns over taxpayer fraud. Personal Income refunds were $23.6 million lower than projected. The General Fund would have been –$7.26 below its monthly target despite positive performance in Sales and Use and Rooms and Meals. Consumption taxes rebounded after a historically warm early winter kept skiers away. February is the eighth month of FY 2016. The fiscal year revenue targets were adopted by the Vermont Emergency Board on January 19, 2016. Also, the frenzy over the record Powerball national lottery helped push up state Education revenues by $3 million.
Administration Secretary Justin Johnson said, “Protecting Vermont tax payers against fraudulent refund activity is our priority and the slowdown in processing of refunds is reflected in our large February surplus. We are pleased our consumption taxes came in on target for the month and we will continue to monitor the Corporate and Insurance Premium taxes as we progress through the year.”
Personal Income totaled $31.42 million, +$20.76 million above target (or +194.75%) while Sales and Use totaled $18.20 million, +$0.28 million above target and Rooms and Meals totaled $12.35 million, +$0.37 million above target. Net Corporate Income Tax was $-1.34 million (-$2.29 million or -241.26%) below projection and the Insurance Premium Tax was $21.33 million (-$3.09 million, or –12.65%) below projection. The cumulative GF revenues total of $914.02 million are above the Y-T-D target of $898.98 million by $15.04 million, or 1.67%. Y-T-D February revenue receipts for FY 2016 exceed the prior year (FY 2015) results by +$45.43 million, or +5.23%.
The Transportation Fund (TF) non-dedicated receipts for February of $16.58 million missed the monthly target by -$1.32 million (–7.39%), resulting in cumulative year to date receipts of $165.59 million vs. a target of $167.75 (-$2.16 million or –1.29%). The low performance in February was driven primarily by the underperformance of the Gas Tax, $4.64 million vs. a target of $5.94 million, or -$1.3 million. Compared to the prior fiscal year (FY 2015) the current cumulative results for TF are +$2.19, or +1.34% ahead.
The Education Fund (EF) receipts for February were $16.58 million, $3.27 million (+24.53%) above the monthly target of $13.32 million, driven largely by the positive impact of the exceptionally large Powerball jackpot in January of this year. The EF cumulative results through February stand at $127.39 million vs. a target of $126.97 million. Y-T-D revenues remain ahead of the prior fiscal year (FY 2015) by +$4.97 million, or +4.06%.
