"This is great news, considering last year at this time we were two-percent under estimate for the fiscal year," Gov. Rendell said at a news conference. "In fact, collections for December are 15.5 percent better than December 2009 and this is the first time since 2007 that Pennsylvania's collections exceeded estimate at the halfway point in the fiscal year.
"Every major tax category came in above estimate for the month of December," he added, summarizing the three biggest tax collection categories: Corporate taxes are above estimate by 8.1 percent; Sales tax is above estimate by 4.9 percent; and Personal income tax is above estimate by 12.2 percent.
Revenue collections for December were $2.3 billion, which was $176.9 million, or 8.4 percent, more than anticipated. For the fiscal year-to-date, General Fund collections total $11.5 billion, which is $191.2 million, or 1.7 percent, above estimate.
Sales tax receipts totaled $669.3 million for December, $31.6 million above estimate. Year-to-date sales tax collections total $4.2 billion, which is $102.8 million, or 2.5 percent, more than anticipated.
Personal income tax revenue in December was $869.9 million, $94.3 million above estimate. This brings year-to-date PIT collections to $4.4 billion, which is $16.6 million, or 0.4 percent, above estimate.
December corporation tax revenue of $476.9 million was $35.7 million above estimate. Year-to-date corporation tax collections total $1.2 billion, which is $91.4 million, or 7.9 percent, above estimate.
Other General Fund revenue for the month included $67.1 million in inheritance tax, $4.8 million above estimate, bringing the year-to-date total to $380.8 million, which is $4.9 million above estimate.
Realty transfer tax revenue was $25.9 million for December, $100,000 above estimate, bringing the fiscal-year total to $149.3 million, which is $32.8 million less than anticipated.
Other General Fund tax revenue, including cigarette, malt beverage, liquor and table games taxes totaled $139.9 million for the month, $1.9 million below estimate and bringing the year-to-date total to $752.4 million, which is $1.2 million above estimate.
Non-tax revenue totaled $42.4 million for the month, $12.4 million above estimate, bringing the year-to-date total to $319.4 million, which is $7 million above estimate.
In addition to the General Fund collections, the Motor License Fund received $290 million for the month, $119.8 million above estimate. Fiscal year-to-date collections for the fund total $1.3 billion, which is $163.3 million, or 14.4 percent, above estimate.
"Today's revenue update comes on the heels of last month's job figures, when our unemployment rate dropped by two-tenths of a percentage point bringing us to 8.6 percent unemployment in November - marking four consecutive months of lower unemployment," the Governor said. "We are now more than a full percentage point below the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent. Pennsylvania has been at or below the national rate for 92 of the past 95 months."
NewsClip: PA Revenues Running Above Estimates
NewsClip: PA Revenues Running Above Estimates
