State tax revenue in September was 1.4 percent less than the same month last year, but $13 million, or 2.3 percent above forecast.
After three months of the budget year, the state had collected $1.521 billion, or .6 percent above last year. Conservative forecasting put the revenues 2.7 percent ahead of expected.
There’s strength in sales taxes, up 7 percent year to year. Income taxes, cut several times in recent years by the legislature, are running behind last year by 4.5 percent. No comfort to the bottom 40 percent of workers, who got NO income tax from the 2015 legislature.
The static revenue figures combine with use of one-time money for things like opening prison beds and hiring more case workers for children’s services and other needs to raise questions about continuing talk from some legislators about more tax cuts and the desire of the highway construction lobby to take general revenues to bolster highway spending. Unless the money is saved by such means as drastically trimming Medicaid.