State revenues were short of expectations last month.
Total tax collections were $506 million, missing projections by over $58 million or over 10 percent. They also were short of last year by over 7.5 percent.
Of the three major categories, only combined retail sales and compensating use taxes were above estimates and year-to-year numbers. Receipts in that category, over $253 million, were above projections by 0.2 percent and last year by 2.6 percent.
Individual income sales tax receipts, the biggest category, generated almost $206 million — but that missed the forecast by almost 18 percent and last year by over 14 percent. Corporate income tax collections were actually almost -$350,000, below estimates and last year by over 102 percent.
For months, Governor Laura Kelly has said lawmakers have developed a budget that spends more than it receives through the rest of the decade. She says the Legislature has created a structural imbalance in the budget that needs to be addressed, calling for lawmakers to look at the budget she proposed during her State of the State in January “for a path to rectify the unsustainable imbalance over time.”
