Pennsylvania collected $13.7 billion of revenue from July through January — $264 million, or 2% above budgeted estimates, with help from strong sales, personal income, and business taxes.
January collections totaled $2.2 billion, which is nearly $73 million, or 3.4% better than earlier projections.
Year-to-date sales tax receipts total $5 billion, $107.7 million more than expected.
Personal income tax receipts from July through January generated $5.6 billion, which is $89.5 million above budgeted estimates. Year-to-date corporate taxes are $92.3 million above projections, totaling $1.3 billion.
Conversely, realty-transfer tax receipts are down. The state collected $172.6 million from July through January, which is nearly $33 million less than anticipated. Other general fund tax revenue — which includes cigarette, liquor, and table-games taxes — total $849.4 million since July, $8.2 million below estimates.
Pennsylvania has around $9 billion of outstanding general obligation debt, which is rated double-A by all three credit agencies.
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to release his first budget in early March for fiscal 2012, which begins July 1. Corbett took office on Jan. 18. Officials estimate the state will face a deficit of $3.5 billion to $4 billion in fiscal 2012.
