Vermont Business Magazine Revenue collections continued to show strength in the personal income tax, rooms & meals tax and even the sales tax for the month of December 2019. Meanwhile, the corporate tax followed recent behavior with a wild swing, this time down, and the Transportation Fund-related revenues disappointed again.
“General Fund receipts were $5.11 million, or 3.85%, above the consensus cash flow target for the month. The Education Fund was also above expectations, while the Transportation Fund revenues were below forecast,” stated Secretary Young.
General Fund revenues collected for the month totaled $137.94 million, or $5.11 million above the monthly consensus revenue target, which is tied to the annual consensus revenue forecast adopted by the Emergency Board on July 29, 2019. Year to date, General Fund revenues exceeded their target by $15.40 million, or 2.12%.
The Transportation Fund was -$.65 million, or -2.98%, below expectations for the month, bringing in $21.29 million. Year-to-date, the Transportation Fund is below target; -$.62 million, or -.45% below the consensus forecast.
The Education Fund was $1.03 million, or 2.46%, above its monthly target, having collected $42.84 million for the month. Year-to-date, the Education Fund is $2.41 million, or .87%, above consensus forecast.
On January 16, 2020, the Emergency Board revised the general fund revenue forecast and increased projected revenues into the fund by 1.2%,1.0% and 0.5% in FY20, FY21 and FY22 respectively.
“While we are generally pleased with the overall performance of revenues relative to forecast, despite the revenue upgrade, the Governor’s proposed FY21 budget required difficult decisions with reductions in appropriations to agencies, departments, programs and services,” said Secretary Young. “The Administration will continue to focus on meeting the State’s demographics challenge to draw more people to Vermont and into our workforce. We need to continue to make investments that grow our economy and our tax base.”
Note: Adjusting for redirection of certain health care-related taxes under Act 6 of 2019 and redistribution of the meals and rooms tax under Act 76 of 2019, for comparison purposes only, in the accompanying General Fund tables, the year-to-date revenues for November 2019 (FY 2020) represent changes of +1.50%, -0.63%, and +6.33% for the General Fund, Transportation Fund, and Education Fund, respectively, from the same period in FY 2019.
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Source: Administration Montpelier. 1.24.2020