State Tax Reveues WEAK!!!!!

Mass. tax revenues in August
below expectations

September 3, 2010
Boston Herald

 BOSTON—Massachusetts has collected $89 million more in taxes during August compared with the same month last year, but that still fell $70 Million below the estimate for the month.


 Revenue Commissioner Navjeet Bal said preliminary collections for the month totaled about $1.38 billion, up about 6.9 percent from last August.
But that wasn't enough to match the monthly estimate the state needs for its current budget.


Since August is typically not a large month for tax collections, and because the state beat its July estimate by about $78 million, the state is still about $8 million ahead of its estimate for the year.


Bal said sales tax collections for August don't reflect the impact of the sales tax holiday on Aug. 14 and 15. That will be reflected in the September numbers.

The Fall River FY 2011 Revenue Death Watch has officially begun. I say this because Fall River is absolutely dependant upon state aid revenue to fund roughly 70% of it's annual operating budget. Any negative revenue  trends will spell absolute devastation to overall budgets for the City.

What I find most ominous is that the September numbers will be far lower than expected because of the sales tax holiday. As we go into the Fall months , if tax revenues continue to fail to reach established revenue targets we could easily see yet another round of mid year reductions in Local Aid, all indications of Massachusetts economic growth to the contrary.

The situation of actual state tax revenues versus established projections will once again become the most important factor to follow when considering the state of Fall River's fiscal condition for FY's 2011 and 2012.