State finishes fiscal year short $431M in taxes
State House News Service
Friday, July 21, 2017
Massachusetts ended a tumultuous budget year in 2017 with a revenue
gap of $431 million, squarely within the ballpark that Gov. Charlie
Baker said would be reasonably manageable as his administration attempts
to balance the books on last year’s budget.
The state collected $431 million less than it had anticipated in tax revenue last fiscal year, falling 1.7 percent below the yearly benchmark for the budget year that ended June 30, the Department of Revenue announced Friday.
The $25.625 billion collected in fiscal year 2017 was a 1.4 percent increase over total collections in fiscal year 2016, but the rate of growth was still considerably slower than the three percent growth that will be needed in fiscal 2018 to hit the mark of $26.422 billion in tax collections that House and Senate budget writers projected as necessary to support spending in the fiscal 2018 budget they adopted.
Fiscal year 2017, which featured strings of months in
which collections came in below benchmark necessitating downward
revisions in revenue projections, ended on a positive note for the
state’s pocketbook.
The $2.719 billion collected in June was $9 million above the monthly benchmark and 3.1 percent more than the actual amount collected in June 2016, DOR reported.
Revenue Commissioner Michael Heffernan, who will soon take over the governor’s budget office, offered a bullish take on the state’s fiscal picture.
“We saw solid year-over-year increases in withholding and in sales and use tax revenue. These results indicate continued growth in the economy,” Heffernan said in a statement. “The categories of estimated payments, payments with returns, and corporate and business taxes, which are most prone to volatility, were down year-over-year and generated the FY2017 shortfall. We will continue to closely monitor those categories.”
Heffernan was named this week by Baker to serve as the state’s secretary of administration and finance, taking over from Kristen Lepore as she transitions into the governor’s office as chief of staff, replacing Steve Kadish.
On the year, income tax collections of $14.696 billion were $291 million or 1.9 percent below benchmark, sales and use tax collections of $6.209 billion were $19 million or 0.3 percent above benchmark, and withholding collections totaling $11.970 billion were $20 million or 0.2 percent above benchmark.
The state collected $431 million less than it had anticipated in tax revenue last fiscal year, falling 1.7 percent below the yearly benchmark for the budget year that ended June 30, the Department of Revenue announced Friday.
The $25.625 billion collected in fiscal year 2017 was a 1.4 percent increase over total collections in fiscal year 2016, but the rate of growth was still considerably slower than the three percent growth that will be needed in fiscal 2018 to hit the mark of $26.422 billion in tax collections that House and Senate budget writers projected as necessary to support spending in the fiscal 2018 budget they adopted.
The $2.719 billion collected in June was $9 million above the monthly benchmark and 3.1 percent more than the actual amount collected in June 2016, DOR reported.
Revenue Commissioner Michael Heffernan, who will soon take over the governor’s budget office, offered a bullish take on the state’s fiscal picture.
“We saw solid year-over-year increases in withholding and in sales and use tax revenue. These results indicate continued growth in the economy,” Heffernan said in a statement. “The categories of estimated payments, payments with returns, and corporate and business taxes, which are most prone to volatility, were down year-over-year and generated the FY2017 shortfall. We will continue to closely monitor those categories.”
Heffernan was named this week by Baker to serve as the state’s secretary of administration and finance, taking over from Kristen Lepore as she transitions into the governor’s office as chief of staff, replacing Steve Kadish.
On the year, income tax collections of $14.696 billion were $291 million or 1.9 percent below benchmark, sales and use tax collections of $6.209 billion were $19 million or 0.3 percent above benchmark, and withholding collections totaling $11.970 billion were $20 million or 0.2 percent above benchmark.
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