Tennessee tax revenues continued to decline in July, making it the first time the state has ever experienced a full year of negative growth, according to Finance and Administration commissioner Dave Goetz.
State sales tax collections in July experienced negative growth for 17 of the past 19 months, Goetz announced. Sales taxes were $81.3 million less than the estimate for July, down 10.88% compared to the previous year.
For the fiscal year, sales tax revenues are down $687.9 million, equating to a 7.66% decline from the prior year.
"Franchise and excise tax collections showed positive growth for July, but all the over-collection resulted from significant one-time payments, not from an upswing in economic activity in Tennessee," Goetz said in a release.
For all collections, July revenues were $815 million, or $61.8 million less than the state budgeted for the month.
Year-to-date collections for 12 months were $1.2 billion less than the budgeted estimate.
