By Hilary Niles, VTDigger.org
Three months into fiscal year 2015, General Fund receipts are about $3.83 million, or 1 percent, behind revenue projections. The $327 million haul, however, exceeds General Fund receipts from the same period last year.
“That is positive as an economic barometer,” Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding said in the monthly report. “We will be watching personal income tax receipts carefully in the next couple of months, as this component continues to lag expectation.”
Though personal income tax receipts missed their targets in September, they didn’t fall as short as they had in previous months. In August, the projected personal income tax revenue was missed by $4.3 million, or almost 10 percent.
Personal income taxes comprise more than half of the General Fund’s largest revenue stream.
Three of the General Fund’s other major sources — sales and use, corporate income and meals and rooms taxes — slightly exceeded expectations in September. The offset helped the General Fund close September about $1.6 million ahead for the month, thereby eating away at the year-to-date shortfall.
Solid sales and use receipts also helped buoy the Education Fund and the Education and Transportation funds are in the black — a little more than 3 percent ahead of where they were last year.
