By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — State tax collections were up in January, leading the state’s top budget officer to say today that Arkansas’s economic recovery continues, but it’s slow going.
“It’s just kind of a continuation of the same story of the economy, I think,” said Richard Weiss, director of the state Department of Finance and Administration. “We’re coming out of the recession slowly … in fits and starts. There’s not any strong surge of growth by any means.”
The revenue report released by DF&A showed net available funds in January totaled $460.9 million, $600,000 or 0.1 percent above forecast for the month, and $1 million or 0.2 percent above last year.
Weiss said sales and corporate tax collections were above last year and above the forecast, but there was a slight dip in individual income tax collections.
“When you look at the year-to-date numbers, in the individual income we are well ahead of forecast and ahead of last year,” he said. “So, what is going on, I think, is just the monthly … different timing thing on when we get the money from businesses.”
“It was good to see gross receipts coming up to forecast,” he said. “If you look at year-to-date, though, we’re still pretty far down from where we hope to be.”
The monthly revenue report is the last lawmakers will see before the Legislature’s fiscal session begins Feb. 13.
Sales tax collections in January totaled $182.5 million, $8.6 million or 4.9 percent above last year, and $3.5 million or 2 percent above forecast.
The state’s corporate tax collections in January totaled $26.1 million, $14.5 million or 125 percent above last year, and $14.3 million or 121.5 percent above forecast.
“It’s a good report, for which we are glad, because we still expect there will be a lot of refunds filed before the end of the fiscal year, particularly corporate refunds, so having a little hedge against that is certainly good,” he said.
Year-to-date net available revenues totaled $2.8 billion, $78.3 million above last year and $42.8 million above forecast.
