LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas’ revenue is $32 million below expectations for the first three months of the fiscal year, state revenue officials said Tuesday after sales and corporate income taxes in September dipped below forecast and what was generated last September.
The state Department of Finance and Administration said the state’s net available revenue in September totaled $515.5 million, which was $500,000 below the same month last year and $16.7 million below forecast. Finance officials said the state’s sales and corporate income tax collections were below forecast, while individual income taxes were slightly higher.
The state’s revenue for the fiscal year that began July 1 totaled $1.3 billion, which was $4.3 million below the same point last year and $32 million below forecast. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he wanted to watch another month of revenue numbers before deciding whether the state needed to adjust its forecast.
“We’ll probably wait for another month’s report and see whether that pattern continues or whether that breaks, but we’ll need to make a decision at that point because we’ll be right up against the deadline for presenting our balanced budget for the next year,” Hutchinson said.
Arkansas ended the last fiscal year with a $177.4 million surplus, and lawmakers are set next week to begin budget hearings for the next fiscal year. Hutchinson noted that income tax collections were above forecast after lawmakers last year approved his push for a $102 million income tax cut.
Hutchinson has said he plans to propose another tax cut next year, but has not said how much of a reduction he wants.
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