© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

State Revenues Up Slightly, Income Tax Falters

AUGUSTA, Maine — State revenues were above budget in September, and after the first three months of the budget year, they are overall nearly $10 million above projections. Finance Commissioner Richard Rosen said he is pleased to be ahead of projections but cautions some sources of revenues are doing better than others.

“Within that there are certainly elements that we have to continue to look at with some care," he said in an interview with MPBN News. “One is the withholding number in the individual income tax.”

It has failed to meet projections for the quarter and so far this budget year is $13.8 million below estimates. Rosen said estimated tax payments paid quarterly by some taxpayers are $7.7 million below estimates.

“There is a feeling among some that this is an issue that will smooth out in the second and third quarters," he said. “But the revenue forecasters are going to take a careful look at this when they come in in November.”

Sales tax revenue, second only to the income tax as a source of state revenue, is also slightly below estimates, although it is showing growth over collections made a year ago. Lewiston Democratic representative Peggy Rotundo, co-chair of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, said the revenue numbers are another indication of Maine's slow recovery from the recession.

“I always focus on sales tax and the individual income tax as a sign of how Maine working families are doing and their income and they are all lagging behind projections,” she said.

Rotundo said it is not surprising that revenues are soft, given the state’s long road to recovery from the recession.

“We know that the state has not experienced the same economic recovery that most other states have,” she said. “We lag behind in job creation.”

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.