Positive News on Revenue

Tennessee revenues continued to show modest improvement in August, the first month of the fiscal year, with the collection of $749.3 million, which is 3% above  the total in August 2009.

“Sales tax collections have shown positive growth for the past five consecutive months, and we believe it points to a slowly recovering economy in Tennessee,” Finance and Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz said in a news release. “Still, we need to continue to closely monitor our spending patterns in the months ahead to keep the budget in a balanced posture for the next governor.”

While there are signs of an increasing trend, August collections were $5.4 million less than the budgeted estimate.

General fund revenues were under-collected by $10.7 million, while four other major funds over-collected by $5.3 million. Franchise and excise taxes were $12 million below the budgeted estimate of $23.5 million.

Sales tax collections were $10.1 ­million, or 3.26%, more than the estimate for August. Gasoline and motor fuel ­collections increased by 0.34% and were $4.7 million above the budgeted estimate of $69 million. Tobacco tax collections for the month were over-collected by $1.7 million.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM BOND BUYER