NEWS RELEASE
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
For immediate release

JANUARY GENERAL REVENUE COLLECTIONS TOP ESTIMATE

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

Preliminary reports show General Revenue Fund collections for January totaled $489.0 million. That amount was:

“State revenue collections continue to show that Oklahoma’s economy has moved beyond the recent recession and is on a strong growth path,” Scott Meacham, Director of the Office of State Finance, said. “We continue to see strength in our closest indicators of the state’s economy, individual income tax and sales tax.

“January sales tax collections, which include the second half of the Christmas shopping season, were very strong. That confirms media reports that much of the holiday shopping occurred in the last half of December. 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. “We are becoming increasingly confident that there will be a surplus above the Rainy Day Fund cap this fiscal year,” he said.

Additionally, Meacham noted, January collections fell just short of the collections in January of last year. “In January 2004 our estate tax collections were over $40 million higher than normal due to some one-time payments,” he explained. “Total collections this year were just $1.3 million short of last year’s figure. On a continuing collections basis, removing the impact of one time unusual events, January’s collections were nearly $40 million higher than during the same period last year. This clearly shows that the Oklahoma economy, and state revenue, continues to grow at a brisk pace.”

Net income taxes produced $261.3 million, which was $24.6 million or 10.4 percent above the prior year and $39.7 million or 17.9 percent above the estimate. Individual returns produced the majority of that revenue. However, corporate income tax continues to show dramatic improvements over recent history with collections of $8.5 million for the month. This is in comparison to January 2004 when corporate income tax collections were only $1.7 million. Individual income tax collections were up $16.2 million or 6.8 percent over the prior year and 32.9 million and 14.9 percent over the estimate.

The state sales tax produced $123.8 million for the month, which was $8.2 million or 7.1 percent above the prior year and $4.1 million or 3.4 percent above the estimate.

The gross production taxes on natural gas yielded $34.9 million for the month, which was $0.3 million or 0.9 percent below the prior year and $2.2 million or 5.9 percent below the estimate.

Motor vehicle taxes produced $20.6 million, which was $0.7 million or 3.5 percent above the prior year and $1.7 million or 8.8 percent above the estimate.

Other revenue produced $48.4 million for the month of January. This was $34.5 million or 41.6 percent below the prior year and $10.7 million or 18.1 percent below the estimate.

(NOTE: The Board of Equalization will meet Friday, February 18, at 10:30 A.M. in the Governor’s Large Conference Room to consider final certification of revenue for the FY-2006 fiscal year. Included in the presentation to the Board will be an update of the projected revenue collections for the current fiscal year, FY-2005.)