Arkansas Revenues Fall But Exceed Expectations

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DALLAS — Arkansas started its fiscal year with revenues running below last year's but ahead of projections.

At $399.2 million, July tax revenues were $3.9 million or 1% below those of July 2014 but $6.8 million or 1.7% above the official forecast, according to John Shelnutt, head of economic analysis and tax research for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.

"Results in July for major categories consisted of sales and use tax collections well above expectations, corporate income tax below forecast, and individual income tax matching forecast," Shelnutt said in a press release. "Collections are down compared to year-ago results as expected, largely because of payroll withholding rates from updates to the state withholding tax tables."

Corporate income tax collections reported in July totaled $20.4 million, which was up $2 million from July 2014 and $6.3 million, or 23.7%, below forecast.

Individual income tax collections for July totaled $1.3 million, which was up 1.7% from a year ago and matched the forecast.

With $1.7 billion of tax-supported debt, Arkansas carries general obligation bond ratings of AA from Standard & Poor's and Aa1 from Moody's Investors Service, with stable outlooks.

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