State tax revenues are ahead of projections again.
August tax collections were $692.3 million, up 4 percent from a year ago and almost 4 percent above estimates. Individual income tax collections beat estimates by nearly 5 percent and last year by nearly 10 percent. Combined retail sales and compensating use tax receipts were 4 percent above estimates but also slightly lower than last year. Corporate collections were the only “down” category, missing forecasts and last year by almost 10 percent.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says the numbers “highlight the strength of Kansas’ work to attract business investment and workforce development,” but she says she is still concerned about a “reckless” impact on long-term budgets, given concerns about revenues going lower than spending later this decade.
Republicans in the Kansas Statehouse, however, say any blame belongs to Kelly for any budget issues, with House Speaker Dan Hawkins saying: “real spending reform didn’t happen until lawmakers took the lead on the budget this year. To this day, she hasn’t offered a single plan for how her agencies could find efficiencies in their spending and her proposed budget last year was significantly larger than (the one) that passed into law.”
