NEWS RELEASE
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
For immediate release

JANUARY GENERAL REVENUE COLLECTIONS ABOVE PRIOR YEAR AND ESTIMATE

(OKLAHOMA CITY) General Revenue Fund collections for the month of January were above prior year receipts and the Office of State Finance’s estimate, state finance officials reported today.

Preliminary reports show General Revenue Fund collections for January totaled $492.7 million. That amount was:

• $68.3 million or 16.1 percent above the prior year; and
• $53.4 million or 12.2 percent above the estimate.

“State revenue collections continue to show that Oklahoma’s economy is pulling out of the revenue crisis of the prior year,” Scott Meacham, Director of the Office of State Finance, said. “We continue to see strength in individual income tax and sales tax, two key barometers of the underlying economy.

“January sales tax collections, which include the second half of the Christmas shopping season, were strong. That confirms the reports we heard that the period was a strong one for state retailers. Individual income tax collections once again exceeded those of one year ago and the estimate.”

The continued strength of revenue collections, Meacham added, bodes well for state agencies. “It is looking very unlikely that budget cuts will be necessary this fiscal year,” he said.

Additionally, Meacham noted, January collections were enhanced by what appears to be non-recurring, significantly higher than expected estate tax revenues. “It appears there was some unusual activity in that revenue source,” he explained. “Collections for January were $45.7 million, which is $41.5 million or nearly 1,000 percent more than one year ago and $38.7 million or almost 550 percent above the estimate. State law prevents the Oklahoma Tax Commission from disclosing the source of the additional revenue. Given the one-time nature of taxpayers’ payment of estate taxes, we can safely assume that we had several large payments happen to be made in January.”

Net income taxes produced $236.7 million, which was $30.6 million or 14.9 percent above the prior year and $1.5 million or 0.7 percent above the estimate. Individual returns produced all of that revenue. Corporate income tax refunds exceeded collections by $1.5 million. Refunds in excess of collections historically are not uncommon in January. Individual income tax collections were up 28.7 million or 13.8 percent over the prior year and 6.0 million and 2.6 percent over the estimate.

The state sales tax produced $115.6 million for the month, which was $6.3 million or 5.8 percent above the prior year and $2.8 million or 2.5 percent above the estimate.

The gross production taxes on natural gas yielded $35.2 million for the month, which was $4.8 million or 15.8 percent above the prior year and $5.3 million or 17.6 percent above the estimate.

Motor vehicle taxes produced $19.9 million, which was $0.7 million or 3.6 percent below the prior year and $0.1 million or 0.5 percent below the estimate.

Other revenue produced $85.4 million for the month of January. This was $27.3 million or 47.0 percent above the prior year and $43.9 million or 105.7 percent above the estimate.

(NOTE: The Board of Equalization will meet Tuesday, February 17, at 2 P.M.. in the Governor’s Large Conference Room to consider final certification of revenue for the FY-2005 fiscal year. Included in the presentation to the Board will be an update of the current fiscal year (FY-2004) projection.)