State revenue was just slightly off for the most recent month.
General revenue collections for August totaled $396,946,723. That fell just below the monthly estimate of $401,932,000 by $4,985,277.
That represents a figure that is 1.7% below what the State of West Virginia took in last August.
General revenue collections for the fiscal year that started on July 1 collections have added up to $785,148,139. For the year so far, that number exceeds the state’s official estimate by $17,285,139.
That’s 6.2% ahead of prior year collections so far.
“August came in right on our $400 million estimate, and through two months of the year, we’re up about $17 million over estimate and 6% over the prior year,” said state Revenue Secretary Eric Nelson, speaking on MetroNews’ Talkline.
The state’s two primary revenue drivers, personal income tax and consumer sales tax, which together account for 80% of collections, demonstrated solid performance.
Personal income tax collections for August totaled $143,084,221, exceeding the monthly estimate of $137,449,000 by $5,635,221.
The total year to date personal income tax collections are $291,508,275.
“The personal income tax is 1% below prior year, but that is really not a bad number to look at when you consider that our income taxes were reduced almost 6% from the prior year, so we’re collecting more personal income tax than we expected after our cut of last year,” Nelson said.
Consumer sales and use tax collections for August totaled $179,837,072, exceeding the monthly estimate of $165,971,000 by $13,866,072.
Total year to date consumer sales and use tax collections are $316,600,908.
“Consumer sales tax is really driving our numbers. And really there are three good trends that we’ve seen in our consumer sales tax,” Nelson said.
“August this year is up over 8% compared to August of last year. We’re 22% higher year to date. And probably one of the biggest drivers is when you compare June, July and August together.”
Severance tax collections for August totaled $29,021,815, below the monthly estimate of $51,393,000 by $22,371,185.
That represents taxes on extractions of natural resources like coal, gas and timber. Those industries are very cyclical and it’s always challenging to predict this number.
Total year to date Severance Tax collections are $30,454,818.
“Severance taxes, you’ll see, are down in the month of August,” Nelson said. “But a lot of that has to do with timing. Our volume of coal and gas production remains high, and because of some of the oversupply, the downward pressure on prices remains.”